I wrote about the African Green-Pigeon last year during Birdtober, so this year I decided to learn more about the larger family of Green Pigeons. There are thirty species of them across Africa and Asia. I enjoyed looking at many photos of different varieties. The video below shows one of them. They are green because of carotenoids in their fruit diet. I wondered whether humans could turn green from eating carotenoids but found that occasionally people turn orange when they overconsume. But don't stop eating them, because carotenoids are antioxidants, great for your eyes, your heart, and even cancer prevention.
The genus Treron, to which Green Pigeons belong (some species have a hyphen and some don't), was first introduced by French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot, who lived in Haiti during the 1770s and 1780s. He worked in his brother's spice business and fled to the US during the Haitian revolution. He lost one of his daughters to Yellow Fever. I read the novel Fever 1793 with one of my middle school classes during Covid, and we were interested to learn that the Yellow Fever epidemic in Philadelphia was blamed on the refugees from Haiti. It was easy to draw parallels with anti-Asian sentiment during Covid. All subjects do eventually lead back to Haiti with me, as you may have noticed.
You are what you eat, Green Pigeon
Carotenoids and all
But don’t hold back a smidgeon:
Fruit makes you beautiful.
©Ruth Bowen Hersey
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