#walking ask

[flock-talk]

how long of a walk do you generally take your bbs on? and do have a preferred way of keeping them hydrated/fed while walking?

Depends on the day, their comfort, and the temperature.  If there’s very little wind and it starts getting hot we’ll usually only be out for about 15 minutes but if it stays a decent temperature we can be out anywhere from 30-40.  If she starts acting uncomfortable, stressed, or generally just tired we’ll end the walk early as to end on a positive note and of course the same would apply to if she’s start acting too cold or hot or if the environment starts getting a bit unsafe (too many people, cars, etc.).  

In this image you can sort of make out the bag I carry with me and what’s in it, just a regular water bottle and I hold a small tupperware container of treats and seed, of course car keys, wallet, phone and things like that as well.  I use the same water bottle for myself as I do for her I just make sure I’m squirting water in to my mouth so I don’t transfer bacteria to the water in the bottle then I just take off the lid and tip it towards her so she can drink if she’d like.  For food, generally she won’t really be needing a meal since I usually time it between meals but I carry it just in case emergencies happen, typically I carry a little dish of treats and just either let her sit on the dish and munch down if she’s been really good or I’ll hand offer her some treats if she’s been going for a little while on good behaviour.

[flock-talk]

when you and zee walk, does she always stay on your finger? or is that just where you have her to pose for pics?

If we’re walking through somewhere I’ve been 100 times with her she’ll be on my shoulder since I know she’s comfortable being there, if we’re walking somewhere I think she may have issues with I’ll have her on my hand so I can watch her body language.  

[flock-talk]

why do pigeons do the head bob thing when they walk?

It helps with vision-related things such as focus and depth perception. Pigeons will head bob more with moving surroundings to better capture images of the things going on around them, they will jolt their head forwards and essentially wait for the body to catch up while they focus on their surroundings. Most birds will be equipped with adaptations like this to better see their surroundings, some more obvious than others.  How much a bird bobs will be dependent on the surroundings, how much is moving in the environment and the bird’s eye itself.  The size of the eye will generally generate a larger head bob, larger eyes mean the bird can’t move them as much, which means the body has to compensate for the eye’s lack of movement.  While you may be able to keep walking and look at the same thing a bird with large eyes (most bird’s eyes are larger than mammals in comparison to head size) will not be able to turn the eyes to look at something so they have to keep their whole head still until focused. How much a bird bobs may also be dependent on the internal workings of the eye, how quickly it processes, it’s receptors, to determine how fast it can process an image, the longer it takes to process an image the more the bird will have to keep it’s head still to focus on the image.

this site explains it a bit better