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Animal Themes
Birds

Pigeons

Pigeons
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 4 to 8
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   9.82

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    exclusive, extinction, slaughter, tendency, altogether, tragedy, entire, species, fliers, pigeon, substance, clearly, fate, carrier, emperor, especially
     content words:    North America, Cincinnati Zoo

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Pigeons   
1     Everywhere you go, especially in big cities, you can see pigeons. These plump-bodied birds love gathering in large groups. When they walk or run, they continuously bob their small heads back and forth as if they are nodding or agreeing to something. Once they take off, they reveal their muscular side.
 
2     Pigeons are strong fliers. They can reach a top speed of about 50 miles per hour and fly nearly 600 miles a day! They are also famous for their "homing" instinct. That means they can find their way home even if they are released from a faraway location. Because of this gifted navigating skill, pigeons have been domesticated for thousands of years and used as messengers to deliver news to their home lofts. With today's modern technology, we certainly do not rely on pigeons for courier services anymore. But, many people continue to raise pigeons and train them for pigeon racing.
 
3     Pigeons have two extraordinary, rather un-bird-like behaviors. The first involves the way they drink. When pigeons are thirsty, they dip their bills into puddles and suck up water. They do not have to lift their heads to swallow it as most birds do. The second unusual thing about pigeons is that they feed their young (called "squabs") with "milk", an otherwise exclusive practice observed only in two other bird species (flamingoes and emperor penguins) and all mammals. In the case of mammals, females have mammary glands that secrete milk. For pigeons, however, both sexes are capable of using their crops -- bag-like chambers in their throats that are usually used for storing food -- to produce the nutritious substance called "crop milk."

Paragraphs 4 to 7:
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