Pigeons Versus Drones?

Nowadays, with technology spreading quicker than wildfire and birds migrating south, one question haunts the mind of every park-goer: Is that a pigeon looking at me, or the government spying on me? Ever since drones began buzzing through the skies, the line between feathered rats and flying spies has blurred. I used to be just like you: unaware and slightly nervous, wondering if the creatures around me were made of feathers or fiberglass. To the untrained eye, pigeons and drones do share a shocking number of similarities: both fly, are everywhere, and are always very interested in what we are eating and talking about. But by the end of this article, you will become enlightened on this topic—just like me.

The Anatomy

At first glance, a pigeon is a flying, grayish creature with wings, eyes, and (most importantly) a head. They are filled to the brim with muscle and equipped with anatomy perfectly designed for flight. In fact, their humerus, or upper arm bone, is very short, specifically allowing gliding through the air to be one of their primary methods of flight (BBC). Overall, pigeons are compact, muscular, and built for flying—just like a flying tank… if that tank occasionally fought over bread crumbs.

While both pigeons and drones have four extending limbs, drones are built very differently. The most common drone, and the focus of this analysis, is the quadcopter. A quadcopter resembles a spider with propellers. With four straight, skinny limbs that jet outward and have propellers on their ends, a quadcopter has a much smaller body than a pigeon, as it does not need space for muscles or bones, but rather wires and circuits. It can be very difficult to differentiate between the two, as both pigeons and drones fly and have four extending limbs, but if you look closely, you will notice a drone has no head, so unless it’s a very unfortunate pigeon, it’s probably a drone.

Flight Patterns

According to Proceedings of the National Academy of

Sciences (PNAS), who are a highly respected scientific research organization, pigeons achieve low-speed turns by adjusting the direction of aerodynamic forces through rotating their entire bodies. In other words, pigeons steer like helicopters. This results in a dynamic and varied style of flight that includes gliding, soaring, short bursts of rapid flapping, and micro-adjustments at nearly every wingbeat.

Drones, on the other hand, follow a far more rigid flight pattern. Using their four rotors, drones can hover almost perfectly still in the air and travel in nearly perfectly straight paths. Their flight does not involve wing movement, but rather changes in rotor speed. To stay stable and avoid uncontrollably spinning, one diagonal pair of rotors spins clockwise, while the other pair spins counterclockwise. Slowing down the front pair of propellers causes the drone to tilt forward, allowing it to move ahead as the back propellers push it forward. To rotate, all a drone must do is slow down one diagonal pair of propellers and speed up the other. A drone’s flight is much simpler than the complex and fluid flight of a pigeon, so while observing a flying object, remember: pigeons rarely fly in straight lines for long, while drones are experts at it.

Can You Really Tell the Difference?

The final comparison between these two is the takeoff of a pigeon versus the launch of a drone. Takeoff for a pigeon is an explosive process where it pushes off the ground from a squat while flinging its wings above its head. Due to their muscular build and this burst of energy, pigeons can accelerate extremely quickly during takeoff to clear the ground. Drones, on the other hand, have a much simpler takeoff procedure. A drone’s lift force is the upward force that pushes up against gravity generated by the drone’s propellers pushing air downwards to bring itself up. The greater the propeller speed, the greater the lift force. Once the lift force of a drone becomes greater than the gravity pushing against it, a drone can easily lift off.

Both pigeons and drones occupy the crowded airspace above our heads, observing us for very different reasons. The differences between the two can be spotted by the careful observer. The pigeon, a product of millions of years of evolution, relies on muscle, instinct, and an unbreakable drive for food. The drone, on the other hand, is the product of human innovation, relying on battery life, a strong signal, and the operator’s questionable decision-making skills. Pigeons tire, defecate, and occasionally walk. Drones do none of these—unless something has gone catastrophically wrong.

In the end, if you hear some chitter-chatter outside your house, remember: if it coos, it’s a pigeon; if it buzzes, it's a drone. If it does none of that, it’s probably a parrot.