Feeding the crows in Burgess Park, I find that the front stalls are soon occupied by town pigeons. They are bolder than the crows, although the crows are willing to come closer than they used to be. But what strikes me is how little aggression the crows show towards the pigeons. When a crow and a pigeon are going for the same piece of bread the crow normally gets it, but the crows make no general attempt to keep the pigeons at a distance.
The crows are larger, with fearsome beaks, and it is not as though they don't know how to be aggressive. Yesterday two of them appeared to be trying to tear a third apart, and when crows and magpies get together things can get very wild.
Pigeons, generally, seem very aggressive. In the garden they see off woodpigeons which again are somewhat bigger, and chase smaller birds away habitually. They are not aggressive to the crows in the park, but nor do they seem to take much notice of them.
I wonder why town pigeons are so aggressive - too much contact with people perhaps.
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