Latest / Logosofia no Dia a Dia / Pigeon on the Balcony: Law, Torah, and Biology
Transcript
- [Prompt] custom: There is a pigeon on our balcony who appears to be roosting. Hannah says she has seen eggs. Hannah a | Hosts: corn, herman [Response] Corn: Daniel sent us this one, and it's wonderfully specific. There is a pigeon on his balcony, apparently roosting. Hannah spotted eggs. And Daniel's immediate concerns are, one, that there's some strict Israeli law against disturbing pigeons, two, there might be a Jewish mitzvah around birds and eggs that he's hazy on, and three, the balcony windows are extremely heavy and he's worried the pigeon will fly inside when they try to open them. His actual words were, we were not prepared for the situation, we did not receive a briefing on pigeon behavior. So the question is, what do we need to know? Herman: This is the most Daniel prompt we've ever received. It's a legal question, a religious question, and a practical engineering problem all wrapped around one stationary bird. I love it. Corn: I appreciate that his primary concern is not the pigeon itself. He's already taken great photos, he says it's quite wonderful having the pigeon there. The fear is purely mechanical. The heavy window. Herman: Right, the pigeon becoming an indoor pigeon. Which, having seen a pigeon panic indoors, is a legitimate fear. They do not understand glass. They will not read the room. I once watched a pigeon get into a university library through an open skylight and spend forty-five minutes trying to exit through a painted cinderblock wall. It was not the bird's finest hour, and the librarians were not equipped for the situation either. Corn: I'm now imagining a pigeon flying directly at a wall repeatedly while someone pages through the ornithology section looking for answers. Herman: That's essentially what happened. The pigeon was fine eventually, someone opened a window, but the cleanup was substantial. So Daniel's fear is grounded in real pigeon physics. They are not indoor animals. Corn: We have three distinct things to figure out. What Israeli law actually says about pigeons on private balconies, what the Torah commandment about birds and eggs really means and whether it applies here, and then the biology. What is this pigeon doing, how long will it be doing it, and how do you open a heavy window without causing an interspecies incident. Herman: The window question is the one keeping Daniel up at night, but the other two are actually fascinating in their own right. So let's start with the law, because Hannah's instinct is correct. There is a strict law. It's the Wildlife Protection Law of 1955, and it protects all wild birds in Israel, including pigeons. Destroying nests or eggs of protected species is illegal, and fines can reach tens of thousands of shekels. Corn: Tens of thousands. Herman: Tens of thousands. But here's the nuance that matters. The law protects wild pigeons. Columba livia, the rock dove, the wild ancestor. What's on Daniel's balcony is almost certainly a feral pigeon, which is the same species but a domesticated lineage that went feral centuries ago. And the legal distinction between wild and feral populations is genuinely blurry in practice. Corn: The law might not technically apply to what is effectively a city pigeon that's been urban for three hundred generations. Herman: The Israel Nature and Parks Authority, the INPA, they rarely prosecute balcony nest disturbances involving feral pigeons. The law exists, it's on the books, but enforcement is focused on actual wild populations, not the ones living on air conditioning units in Jerusalem. Corn: There was that case, right? The one in Tel Aviv. Herman: A Tel Aviv resident was fined five thousand shekels for removing a pigeon nest from a balcony air conditioner. The fine was later reduced on appeal when the resident proved the nest was causing a genuine health hazard. So the law has teeth, but it's not absolute. If there's a demonstrable health risk, you have recourse. Corn: Five thousand shekels is not nothing. That's a serious fine for what most people would consider a minor nuisance removal. That's what, roughly fourteen hundred dollars? Herman: About that, depending on the exchange rate. And here's the thing that makes it even more real. The bigger risk in Israel isn't even the INPA. It's the social media groups. Israeli bird lover groups on Facebook are active, organized, and they will absolutely name and shame people who disturb nests. You might beat the legal fine and still end up infamous in the bird community. Corn: The bird community has a long memory and strong opinions about nest interference. Herman: There was a case in Haifa a few years ago where someone posted a photo of a removed nest on a neighborhood forum, just casually mentioned it, and within hours there were dozens of comments, people tagging the INPA, someone found the building address from the photo metadata. It was a whole forensic operation over a pigeon nest. The person ended up issuing a public apology. To the bird community. Corn: That's impressive detective work over what most people would consider a non-event. Herman: Bird people do not mess around. So legally, Daniel's in a gray zone where the safest move is simply to leave the nest alone. Which he wants to do anyway. He's not looking for permission to evict the pigeon. He's looking for permission to coexist. Corn: Which brings us to the religious question. Daniel mentioned he knows there's something in Jewish law about birds and eggs but the details escape him. Herman: This is one of my favorite obscure mitzvot. It's called shiluach haken, sending away the mother bird. It comes from Deuteronomy chapter twenty-two, verses six and seven. The text says, if you come across a bird's nest with eggs or chicks and the mother is sitting on them, you must send away the mother before taking the young. And then it adds something remarkable. It's one of the very few commandments with a specific reward attached. That it may go well with you and you may prolong your days. Corn: That's unusual. Most commandments don't come with a stated outcome. Herman: It's one of only two mitzvot that explicitly promise long life. The other is honoring your parents. So the rabbinic tradition has spent centuries analyzing why sending away a mother bird gets paired with something as weighty as honoring parents. Corn: What's the leading explanation? Because those seem like very different categories of action. Herman: The most widely cited interpretation comes from the Mishnah, and it's surprisingly philosophical. The Mishnah says that if you're commanded to send away a bird, something that costs you nothing and involves no financial loss, and the reward is long life, then how much greater is the reward for honoring parents, which is difficult and costly. It's an a fortiori argument. The bird mitzvah sets a baseline. If even this small act of compassion earns such a reward, imagine what the hard stuff earns. Corn: The bird mitzvah is almost a teaching tool. It's there to make a point about the larger ethical system. Herman: That's one reading. Others go deeper into the mystical. The Zohar connects shiluach haken to the idea of awakening divine mercy. By showing compassion to the mother bird, you activate compassion in the upper worlds. It's a theurgic act. Your small gesture on a balcony ripples upward. Corn: The key interpretive question here is whether the mitzvah even applies when you have no intention of taking the eggs. Herman: That's exactly the question. And most major commentators, Rashi, Ramban, they say the mitzvah only activates when you want to take the eggs or chicks. If you're just walking by and see a nest, you have no obligation to do anything. The commandment is about regulating the act of taking. It says, if you're going to take, do it this way. Send the mother away first so she doesn't witness the taking of her young. Corn: If Daniel just wants the pigeon to eventually leave on its own schedule, shiluach haken doesn't apply. Herman: It doesn't apply in the technical halachic sense. But the spirit of the law points to something broader. The principle of tza'ar ba'alei chayim, the prohibition against causing unnecessary suffering to animals. That's a separate concept in Jewish law, and it absolutely applies here. You don't destroy a nest. You don't harm a nesting bird. Not because of the specific mitzvah of shiluach haken, but because causing needless pain to animals is itself forbidden. Corn: The law says don't disturb the nest, the Torah says don't cause unnecessary suffering, and Daniel's own inclination is to leave the pigeon alone. Everyone's aligned. The problem is just the window. Herman: So legally and religiously, we're in a zone where restraint is the smart move. But that leaves the practical question. What is this pigeon actually doing, and how do we live with it for the next several weeks? Corn: Daniel noticed the pigeon was remaining very stationary. He took that as a clue that hatching or laying might be in progress. Was he right? Herman: He was exactly right. That stationary behavior is classic incubation posture. Pigeons share incubation duties between both parents, and when they're sitting on eggs, they barely move. They're keeping the eggs at precisely thirty-eight point five degrees Celsius, about a hundred and one point three Fahrenheit. They turn the eggs periodically, but otherwise they are remarkably still. If Daniel saw a pigeon that looked almost frozen in place, there are almost certainly eggs underneath it. Corn: He mentioned that the pigeon seems to be there at all hours. He's looked in the morning, he's looked in the evening, same bird or at least same spot occupied. Does that tell us anything about where we are in the cycle? Herman: It tells us the parents are trading shifts. Pigeons typically split incubation duty. The male usually takes the day shift, roughly morning to late afternoon, and the female takes the night shift through early morning. If Daniel is seeing a pigeon there consistently regardless of the time of day, he might be seeing both parents at different times without realizing they're different individuals. They look very similar to the untrained eye. The male tends to be slightly larger with a more pronounced cere, that fleshy bit at the base of the beak, but from a balcony window, they're essentially identical. Corn: The shift change happens and Daniel just sees pigeon continuity. Herman: And the shift change itself is fascinating to watch if you catch it. The incoming parent arrives, there's a brief cooing exchange, the sitting bird stands, they might do a little billing behavior where they touch beaks, and then the relieved parent flies off to feed and drink. It's a remarkably orderly domestic arrangement. Corn: How long is this going to last? Herman: The incubation period for pigeon eggs is seventeen to nineteen days. Then the squabs, that's what baby pigeons are called, they hatch. They're blind, they're helpless, they're frankly kind of ugly in a compelling way. For the first three to four days, both parents feed them crop milk. Which is a fascinating substance. It's produced in the crop, which is a pouch in the throat, and it's sometimes called pigeon milk. Both male and female pigeons produce it. It's high in protein and fat, and it's the sole food source for newborn squabs. Corn: Both parents lactate. That's not something I expected to learn about pigeons today. Herman: It's not true lactation in the mammalian sense, but it's functionally similar. The lining of the crop sloughs off and produces this nutrient-rich secretion. After three or four days, the parents gradually transition the squabs to seeds. And the squabs grow fast. They fledge, meaning they leave the nest, at twenty-five to thirty-two days after hatching. Corn: From egg-laying to empty nest, we're looking at roughly six to seven weeks. Herman: About six to seven weeks total. If Daniel's pigeon is already incubating, he might be halfway through the egg phase. Then another month of squab-rearing. He's got a balcony tenant for somewhere between four and six more weeks, depending on when the eggs were laid. Corn: That's a commitment. But he seems happy about it. His real fear is the window. Herman: The heavy window. And this is a legitimate fear. Pigeons have a strong homing instinct. They will return to the same nest site repeatedly. If the bird flies inside the apartment, it will panic. Pigeons don't understand interior spaces. They'll crash into windows trying to get out, they can injure themselves badly, and they'll create a mess in the process. Corn: What's the technique? Herman: It's surprisingly simple. Before opening the window, tap gently on the glass from inside. Not hard enough to startle, just enough to get the bird's attention. The pigeon will register the vibration and the movement, and it will typically move to the edge of the balcony or even fly off briefly. Then you open the window slowly. Not with a dramatic gesture. Just slow, steady pressure. The bird has time to adjust. It understands you're coming out. It doesn't perceive a threat. Corn: If the bird doesn't move? Herman: If the bird is deep in incubation and refuses to budge, you tap a little more firmly. Most incubating pigeons will still shift position if they sense activity nearby. They're not comatose. They're alert even when stationary. The key is never to chase the bird. Never wave your arms. The slow approach works because pigeons read slow movements as non-predatory. Corn: This is the sloth method. I endorse this fully. Herman: I knew you would. It's basically your entire philosophy of movement applied to bird management. Corn: I've been training my whole life for this moment. Slow window operation. Herman: The technique is tap, wait, open slowly. That's it. Daniel can get onto his balcony without creating an indoor pigeon crisis. Corn: What about when he needs to close the window again? Is the re-entry into the apartment the dangerous part? Because now the pigeon might have gotten comfortable with him out there and then suddenly the window moves again. Herman: The exit is actually simpler. When you're on the balcony, the pigeon already knows you're there. It's been watching you the whole time. Pigeons have excellent situational awareness. To go back inside, you just do the same thing in reverse. Move toward the window slowly. Pause before opening it. Give the bird a moment to register what's happening. Then slip inside. The bird doesn't get startled because nothing about the situation has changed from its perspective. You were there, now you're leaving. The danger is only when a new, unexpected stimulus appears, like a window suddenly swinging open from a direction the bird wasn't monitoring. Corn: It's about maintaining predictability. The pigeon has a mental model of the balcony and you're just updating it gradually. Herman: Pigeons are pattern-recognition machines. They're comfortable with slow changes to a known situation. They panic at sudden discontinuities. It's not so different from how humans react to jump scares in horror films. The fear isn't the thing itself, it's the suddenness. Corn: What about health risks? People hear pigeon droppings and they think disease. Herman: This is one of the big misconceptions about pigeons. They're not especially dirty compared to other urban birds. The main concern with droppings is a fungus called Histoplasma capsulatum, which can cause histoplasmosis, a respiratory infection. But the risk to healthy adults is very low. You'd need to inhale disturbed spores from dried droppings, and even then, most people who are exposed don't get sick. Basic hygiene handles it. Don't sweep dried droppings and create dust. Wet them down first if you need to clean. Wash your hands after being on the balcony. That's really all you need. Corn: The pigeon is not a public health menace. It's just a bird on a balcony. Herman: It's a bird on a balcony. And honestly, Daniel already identified the upside. He took great photos. Pigeons are surprisingly photogenic. Their neck feathers in particular. That iridescent green and purple sheen. It's not pigment. It's structural coloration. Microscopic structures in the feather barbules create interference patterns. Same physics as a soap bubble or an oil slick. The color shifts depending on the angle of the light. Corn: Daniel's pigeon photos are capturing nanoscale physics. That's a nice bonus. Herman: It's beautiful when you look closely. Most people dismiss pigeons as urban pests and never notice the iridescence. Daniel's already paying attention. He's getting the aesthetic payoff. Corn: There's another misconception I want to address. The idea that pigeons mate for life and will be emotionally devastated if separated. I've heard people say this as a reason not to disturb nests. Herman: Pigeons do form pair bonds, and they're generally monogamous within a breeding season. But they're not romantic in the human sense. If one partner disappears, the survivor will find a new mate. They're resilient. They're not pining away in grief. The pair bond is functional, not tragic. Corn: The idea that once a pigeon nests, it will keep coming back forever? Herman: Also not quite true. Pigeons return to successful nest sites, yes. That homing instinct is real. But if you clean the area thoroughly after the squabs fledge and then block the spot, netting or spikes or even just rearranging whatever made the spot attractive, they'll move on. They're not sentimental about specific addresses. They're practical. Good site, they return. Site becomes unavailable, they find another. Corn: The long-term strategy is clear. Let this nesting cycle complete, enjoy the photography, and then after the squabs leave, clean and block. Herman: Clean and block. That's the sequence. Don't block while the nest is active, don't disturb the eggs, don't rush the process. But once the balcony is empty again, you reclaim the space. The pigeon finds a new spot. Everyone moves on. Corn: Let's turn this into something concrete. If someone finds themselves in Daniel's situation, what's the checklist? Herman: Step one, confirm eggs are present without disturbing the nest. Use a phone camera on zoom from inside the window. Don't put your face right up to the nest. Don't touch anything. Just verify visually. Corn: Step two, mark the calendar. Seventeen to nineteen days from when you first noticed incubation behavior. That's the hatch window. Then twenty-five to thirty-two days from hatching to fledging. You're looking at roughly six to seven weeks total from egg to empty nest. Herman: Step three, practice the tap-and-open technique. Gentle tap on the glass from inside. Wait for the bird to shift. Open the window slowly. Corn: Step four, basic hygiene. Don't sweep dried droppings. Wet them down if you need to clean. Wash your hands after balcony time. The health risk is minimal with basic precautions. Herman: Step five, after the squabs fledge and the nest is empty, clean the area thoroughly and block the spot. Netting, spikes, or just rearranging furniture. Make it no longer a viable nest site. Corn: Step six, which Daniel has already mastered. Take the photos. Pigeons at close range, in good light, with those iridescent neck feathers catching the sun. That's a genuine wildlife photography opportunity on your own balcony. Herman: The deeper thing here is that urban wildlife encounters are becoming more common. Cities expand, natural habitats shrink, and animals adapt. Pigeons are the ultimate urban adapters. They've been living alongside humans for thousands of years. They were domesticated in the Middle East roughly five thousand years ago. They carried messages for ancient empires. They served in both world wars. There are pigeons that received medals for military service. Having one choose your balcony is not a crisis. It's a small privilege with a very long historical pedigree. Corn: I didn't know about the war medals. That's remarkable. Herman: Cher Ami, a homing pigeon in World War One, saved a stranded American battalion by delivering a message despite being shot through the breast and losing a leg. The bird received the French Croix de Guerre. So when Daniel looks at his balcony pigeon, he's looking at a descendant of decorated war heroes. That's not nothing. Corn: The Torah's insight here, even though shiluach haken doesn't technically apply, is about restraint. The principle encoded in that commandment is that we don't have to take everything we could. We don't have to assert dominion over every situation. Sometimes the right move is to let the bird finish its cycle, and then gently reclaim your space. Not because the law forces you, but because restraint is itself a virtue. Herman: The mitzvah is about regulating the impulse to take. It says, if you're going to take, at least have the decency to send the mother away first so she doesn't watch. That's a floor, not a ceiling. The ceiling is not taking at all. Letting the cycle complete. Corn: One last thing to think about, because this might not end when the squabs fledge. Pigeons can breed year-round in warm climates. Jerusalem summers are basically a continuous breeding season. The parents might try to nest again immediately. Daniel could be looking at a recurring situation. Herman: That's the open question. If the parents come back and lay another clutch in the same spot, does Daniel go through the whole cycle again or does he block the site between clutches? That's a judgment call. There's no law requiring you to host infinite generations of pigeons. But the ethical approach would probably be to let this first cycle finish, clean and block, and then if a pigeon tries to nest again, it'll find a different spot. You're not evicting anyone. You're just not renewing the lease. Corn: A pigeon tenancy with a fixed term. Six to seven weeks, then the balcony reverts to human use. Herman: And in the meantime, Daniel gets to stand at his window watching a wild animal that chose his balcony as a safe place to raise its young. That's not nothing. That's a small, strange privilege that most people never get. Corn: The stationary pigeon, the eggs beneath it, the heavy window that requires a careful technique. It's a whole microcosm of urban coexistence compressed onto one Jerusalem balcony. Herman: Now Daniel has his briefing. He was not prepared. He did not receive the pigeon behavior documentation. But we've got him covered. Law, religion, biology, window technique, and photography tips. The full pigeon dossier. Corn: Now: Hilbert's daily fun fact. Hilbert: In the 1970s, researchers studying cave-adapted crustaceans in the Aleutian Islands discovered that the amphipod Stygobromus had a hemolymph composition with calcium concentrations nearly three times higher than surface-dwelling relatives, an adaptation to the mineral-saturated waters of volcanic cave systems. Corn: Hemolymph calcium in Aleutian cave shrimp. Corn: This has been My Weird Prompts. Thanks to our producer Hilbert Flumingtop. If you enjoyed this episode, tell someone who has a pigeon on their balcony. Or just someone who might someday. You can find us at my weird prompts dot com. We'll be back soon with whatever Daniel sends us next. Herman: Until then, tap the glass gently.