Yesterday whilst gazing out of the 10th floor hospital room I saw 50-60 pigeons swirling around, like a murmuration, for 20 minutes or so. Is there a name for this behaviour? What were they doing?
There was 1 bird which seemed to be doing its own thing and even looked like it was bumping into the others, always a little further out than the main pack then careering back into the centre.
I have had a Google and pigeons can fly in groups, especially if the are racing birds and have just been let out to fly back home, they will swirl around in a circle to find their bearings, ready to set off in the right direction. Don't know about the stray one though! Maybe it still finding the right way to fly!!
Hi Pirate, about a month ago I was also watching a smaller flock of pigeons doing exactly the same as you describe, circling around in close formation for over 15 minutes looking as if they didn't know where to head to and were lost ! I assumed these were racing pigeons as one looked part stock dove. Here's a quick pic I took of some of them.