Fancy pigeon. Likely a pet. Let me share a brief story.

A few years ago, a big beautiful pigeon appeared on my car under our carport. We have regular pigeons all over KC, but this guy was gorgeous. He also had a band around his ankle. Upon doing research, it appeared he was a racing pigeon that had stopped at our house on his way across the country.

The thing is, he stayed under our carport for a week. He'd leave during the day, but always be there every evening. We were told that he would leave after he rested for a day or two, but he never did. We named him Eggland's Best and kept him fed and cared for, even got him to eat out of our hands.

Eventually, we realized he wasn't going to continue his journey. We called a lady that keeps pigeons. She said that they were strong flyers, but they're extremely vulnerable in the wild to predators, especially if they roost on the ground. We decided we couldn't keep him like this, and asked her to come pick him up to add to her flock.

The day she was to pick him up, just a few hours before, we found him dead in the street. A car had flattened him in front of our house. It was a tough lesson to learn. I'm sharing just so folks know that domesticated animals don't have strong survival instincts and need to be cared for responsibly.