Dead Birds

Do pigeons (doves) pair-bond for life? I think they must, and the quick research I did on the Internet would seem to suggest that, but the information was not definitive.

I ask this because yesterday afternoon, I saw two pigeons acting strangely in the parking garage where I work. One was standing stock still as I came within three feet of it while the other did not fly away but simply walked, and none to steadily away. They were situated near a low wall in a relatively sheltered area of the garage, but they were also in an area that had a lot of pedestrian and vehicular traffic. I would think that the pedestrian traffic in particular would have made them unwilling to linger there, but it did not seem to.

I first saw them around 2:30 yesterday afternoon. When I saw them again, around 4:00 pm, as I was going home, one of them looked dead, but the other one was roosting next to it in a corner formed by a structural pillar and a wall, they were not more than three feet from there I had first seen them.

They were still there this morning, though the living one was turned around and probably still trying vainly to rouse its mate. They're gone now (9:45 am). Someone removed the dead bird. I don't know if the living one his hanging out near its dead companion or has moved on.

What's the protocol when you come across a bird mourning for its dead mate? Do you pass by and leave it to its grief? Do you remove the dead carcass as a health hazard? Do you rescue the living one? Do you say it's just a bird and unworthy of even these few words I have written?

Rest in Peace.