The sudden death of a pigeon

Jeroen

I was sitting on the couch in my living room, when there was a sudden flutter of wings outside, a loud doing sound from the upstairs window, a cloud of grey and white feathers and a bird collapsing to the Earth. It twitched a few times and lay still. It was a pigeon. My mother and I approached it with a cardboard box after a few minutes, wearing latex gloves. The body was limp and surprisingly warm to the touch…

It’s a silly thing for a grown pigeon to fly into a window at full tilt and break its neck, but it happens occasionally around here. Last time it was a sparrow. But it always makes me serious-minded and rather sad, when any harmless animal loses it’s life due to an accident. A polar bear lives as a predator and deserves less pity, but say a deer or a monkey I feel sad about. So too a pigeon.

It’s a reminder that death is never far away. Our bodies are fragile, the causes of death are many, and death is inevitable…

Lionduck

@Jeroen
The polar bears, the pumas, the wolves, all are "Flying into the glass window".
I am pained by their demise as much as a sparrow, a pigeon, a deer or a monkey.
They do not see the "Glass Windows/Walls". Wolves inside Yellowstone are lured outside the park boundaries and murdered by "Hunters" for "Sport" or for their state bounty.
Pumas in Florida are losing their habitat to land thieves (developers), Mountain lions in California are precious and as are the condors and Pelicans.
Mourn no less for the polar bear than the sparrow or pigeon. The are all our cousins.

Peace to all