Pigeon Fascination

Children chase them, adults keep them as pets to race with fellow enthusiasts, we feed them, talk to them and gleefully run through a flock of them delighting in watching them scatter. (As my friend Joey did in the pic). In extreme cases, like one Mr. Nikola Tesla (the inventor), he, well he fell in love with them, or one in particular according to his biography.
So what is it with these feathered friends that fascinate people of all ages and temperament? Is it the fact they are so tame, that we get to see them up close, can observe them, that we feel some sort of affinity for them?
The bookshop I currently work in opens out onto a pedestrianised street where, nearby, there is a water hydrant. The City's street cleaning vans come by a few times a day to fill up with water and after they leave, the pigeons flock to drink the water that inevitably leaks onto the paved street.
So I've had a chance to watch them closely. Pigeons have a 'pecking order' which I found funny; survival of the fittest at work. And indeed the 'fittest' are quite mean, biting the back of the necks of their weaker comrades. Many a bird has evidence of wounds inflicted in this way and all for the sake of a few crumbs thrown over by the old retired men sat on the benches nearby.
Lots of cooing, head ducking and chasing on foot ensues during the mating season and seriously, watching pigeons running is really amusing; its like an awkward quick waddle. Why run when you can fly I ask the females, but maybe, for all I know, its a part of the ritual?
Curiously, I feel a little protective of the little visitors outside my door.  One day there was a sick pigeon by the water hydrant; it was just sitting quietly alone and I felt sorry for it knowing straight away it wasn't 100%. It was vulnerable to someone's cruelty should they choose to shoo it or kick it and indeed, it was a young boy of around nine or ten who spotted it and was about to do something mean when he heard a very stern voice call 'DON'T'. The boy turned to look at me and I held his gaze and shook my head from side to side. He looked at the pigeon again and then back at me, shrugged his shoulders and fled to a nearby shop where his parents were.  The pigeon then got up and managed to fly up onto a large ledge of a building across the street. Curious indeed, I thought to myself...
I'd love to have Nikola Tesla's insight into pigeons. Was he just a crazy, lonely man who talked to the birds and believed they talked back or was he, outstanding genius as he was, onto something we have yet to discover? Maybe if we ask pigeon owners they'll tell us being among the birds is kind of therapeutic, well that's a nice idea and cheap too!
One thing is though, if you're going to feed the birds, be careful not to become overly friendly just in case! As my friend Sarah found out below...