I used to laugh at the whole 'birds aren't real' thing

Then I saw a pigeon in New York City that had a weird, tiny metal plate under its wing feathers. It just sat there, not moving, for like 20 minutes while I ate lunch. What's the weirdest thing you've seen that made you question a joke conspiracy?

3 comments

3 Comments

garcia.miles1mo ago

Honestly, that sounds like a wildlife tracking tag to me. Researchers use them to follow bird movements. I've seen similar things on pigeons near bridges, probably part of a city study. It's easy to let a funny joke mess with how you see normal stuff. What did the plate look like, was it just a flat piece?

nancy31mo ago

Tracking tags are a bit much for city pigeons. They're basically rats with wings, not some rare bird in a nature show. Seems like a lot of work for an animal that mostly just hangs out near trash cans. Could be a student project that got a bit carried away.

dixon.anthony1mo ago

Yeah, a tracking tag makes way more sense than my first thought (which was that the pigeon was secretly a tiny construction worker). The plate was just a flat, gray rectangle, maybe the size of a postage stamp, stuck right on its back. Looked pretty official, honestly.