E27. They’ve been called "rats with wings," but pigeons are actually elite athletes, historical icons, and evolutionary marvels. Scott chats with Dr. Elizabeth Carlen, a postdoc at the Living Earth Collaborative at Washington University in St. Louis, to look past the common stereotypes and uncover the remarkable biology of the Rock Pigeon.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

The deep historical bond between humans and pigeons and how domestic birds successfully transitioned back into the wild.
How pigeons navigate the constant threat of specialized hunters like Peregrine Falcons and Red-tailed Hawks.
How mapping the DNA of feral pigeons across the Northeastern US revealed that their population structure surprisingly mirrors human geography, and what flight distances can tell us about their urban evolution.

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All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Bird media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:

Blue Jay audio contributed by Gaetan Dupont, ML173749
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) audio contributed by James Kimball, ML3891
Peregrine Falcon audio contributed by Mike Andersen, ML136378
Red-tailed Hawk audio contributed by David McCartt, ML229578