Is that a baby dragon? This pigeon rescue is caring for Chicago’s most polarizing flock

Perched on the edge of a chair, a tiny city pigeon known as Baby Dragon surveys his sanctuary.

The baby bird arrived at the Great Lakes Pigeon Rescue late last month after he fell too early from his nest and a passerby found him wandering the streets of downtown Chicago, said Natalie Quist, part of the rescue’s board of directors.

The “nestling pigeon” — known as a squab — was about two weeks old when he was taken in by the group. He quickly gained fans among the staff and supporters of the group because of his resemblance to a tiny winged dragon.

“Hopefully it won’t set the house on fire,” one commenter said on a recent Facebook post.

Staff members have taken to calling him Baby Dragon, and Quist says he can be “pretty precocious.” Known for his curiosity and seeming confidence, the bird tends to pose like Captain Morgan on the edge of his bowl when it comes time to eat his seeds.

Because pigeons like Baby Dragon are feral and qualify as a”non-native” species, Quist said, many wildlife agencies with limited funds can’t administer care to them. That’s where she and volunteers like her at the pigeon rescue organization step in. They run the only pigeon-centered rehabilitation facility active in the city.

“You don’t see baby pigeons because they don’t leave the nest until they’re totally independent,” Quist told the Sun-Times. “That’s important to know, because if you do see a baby pigeon, that means they need help.”

Great Lakes Pigeon Rescue started in 2018 with six local bird rescuers who wanted to address the lack of care geared specifically toward pigeons. They became a nonprofit in 2020, and work to rehabilitate injured pigeons and either get them back on the streets or have them re-homed, depending on the birds’ overall condition.

Wren O’Kelley, a volunteer and rehabilitator since 2020, has watched Great Lakes Pigeon Rescue expand over time.

“It started very DIY,” O’Kelley said. “Since then, the amount of animals we’re serving and the expertise that our volunteers have, as well as the quality of our facilities, has grown. It lets us do good by all the birds that we have and that’s a really good feeling.”

Based in Kane County, the organization operates a facility that’s more than 5,000 square feet and houses more than 600 city and racing pigeons. The group coordinates with vets at Naperville Animal Hospital to determine the best care for the birds and set a standard for rehabilitation care that includes wound treatment and sanitation, medication admittance, tube feeding — administered by the organization’s more than 140 active volunteers.

People typically think of cats and dogs when they think of domesticated animals. But, according to Quist, pigeons aren’t far off from them, as ancient pigeons were among the first animals ever to be domesticated by humans.

As a result, their descendants aren’t wild animals, but are feral — which makes caring for them complicated.

“There are so many pigeons, and they’re not a protected species … they don’t have anybody to vouch for them,” Quist said. “A lot of wildlife centers can’t rehabilitate them because they’re not truly wild.”

Nevertheless, pigeons need humans to survive.

“People are used to seeing them all over and that gives them that pest status,” Quist continued. “They’re eating our trash because we brought them here. They’re dirty because they’re in our alleys, going through our garbage dumpsters full of grease, looking for food.”

Many pigeons are brought to Great Lakes Pigeon Rescue with a variety of complications. Quist has seen birds with damaged eyes from running into buildings, injured legs and wings from attacks or “spring foot.”

“Spring foot is where hairs or garbage, like string, gets wrapped around their toes … that constriction can cause toes to fall off,” Quist said. “They’re limping around on little stubs. They’re in for a hard life if we don’t intervene.”

Baby Dragon has not yet been fully assessed and it is unclear whether he will be able to be released. Still, Quist said he was in good company and care.

Quist urges Chicagoans to keep an eye out for struggling pigeons. If a pigeon is banded, it is domestic and not equipped to survive in the wild. If a pigeon has yellow feathers on their head, it’s a nestling like Baby Dragon.

The group also encourages people to consider fostering or adopting a pigeon that needs a home.

Ren Heckathorne, a volunteer and rehabilitator, shared the sentiment.

“I find that when we get a call and I’m going to go find a bird, it’s such a quiet little reminder that there’s still such good people out there, ” Heckathorne said. “So many of these people aren’t invested in pigeon rescue, but something about seeing that bird… they took the time to figure out who to call.”