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Is this a common thing? Like do ravens typically do this?
Yes. While they are ominivorous, they love meat and are considered predatory birds, and they hunt all manners of creatures. Pigeons are one of the favourite preys because despite not being much smaller, pigeon is basically defenseless against the raven.
Do pigeons have any useful features? They seem like such useless birds.
Yes actually, multiple even, most have to do with their numbers:
- By the sheer force of eating everything and shitting upon everything, they disperse seeds of many plants
- As above, they eat basically everything and help to clean the cities
- They control insect population
- They are important part of foodchain for predators, carrion feeders, insects etc. In many parts of the world also for humans
- They apparently make great pets. For example in many parts of Poland, especially in cities, keeping flocks of pigeons was very popular and despite lessening in popularity it is still very much alive hobby.
- As most birds they have great directional sense and could be trained to carry messages, until popularisation of radio around 80 years ago even military used them commonly. It’s also still part of the abovementioned hobby.
Overall yes, they can be useful to humans and are important part of ecosystem, especially in cities.
