Beaker update: It’s a girl

My silly little post about our foster pigeon earlier this week received a lot of response. Here’s a quick update.

I know lots of folks who’ve had pet birds. Most of them just toss a coin and call the critter “he” or “she”. Unless you’re keeping something that obviously shows off the fact that it’s a male, like a peacock, it’s tough to determine the sex…especially with some smaller birds.

There is one fool-proof method: Wait until it lays an egg. Unless you have some weird freak of nature, you can be pretty sure at that point that it’s a girl. Beaker’s been acting odd lately. Making more cooing noises than usual, not wanting to fly around the house nearly as often as she (yup, she) usually does. She’s also been hunkering down on her little nest. We had a feeling. (See the pic.)

This explains why Beaker’s been cooing so loudly. It’s because for the past week she’s been trying to pass an object as big as her head. Also makes sense why she’s been suddenly territorial about her cage: She’s guarding her dead egg. Every time I change her seeds and water, I feel like Tippi Hendren on holiday in Bodega Bay.

Nice thing is that we can stop competing over whether we call the bird “Pierre” or “Beaker." “Pierre” does not work as a girl’s name. Beaker it is.