Photo of a pigeon (Columba livia) by Wardrin - Own work, GFDL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5739797
With reported lead poisonings in cities such as Flint Michigan, methods to detect risk of exposure are desperately needed. Since pigeons live in close proximity to humans, could pigeons be the 'canary in the lead mine'? Researchers at Columbia University in New York City measured the concentrations of lead in the blood of 825 ill or injured feral pigeons to determine whether the animals could serve as bioindicators of levels in the environment. Their results were …
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