Facts About Pigeons
The domestic pigeon (Columba
livia) (also called the rock dove or city pigeon) was originally found in
Europe, Northern Africa, and India. Early settlers introduced it into the
eastern United States as a domestic bird in the 1600s. Since then, it has
expanded throughout the United States to Alaska, across southern Canada, and
south into South America.
Pigeons originally lived in high places—cliffs, ledges, and caves near the sea—that provided them with safety. Over time they have adapted to roosting and nesting on windowsills, roofs, eaves, steeples, and other man-made structures.
Pigeons typically have a gray body with iridescent feathers around their neck, a broad black band on their tail, and salmon-colored feet). Breeders have created color variations, so the body color may also be white, tan, black, or a combination of several colors. Pigeons have a strutting walk and their call is a long, drawn-out coo that can be heard quite easily. When they take off, their wing-tips touch, making a characteristic clicking sound.
Two native birds, the band-tailed pigeon (Columba fasciata,) and the mourning dove (Zenaida macroura,) are sometimes confused with domestic pigeons. Band-tailed pigeons are similar in size but have a purplish head and breast, a dark-tipped yellow bill, yellow feet, and a small white crescent on top of the neck. Mourning doves are smaller than domestic pigeons, have a long, pointed tail, large dark eyes, a dark bill, and a mournful who-ooh, who-who-who call.
Facts about Pigeons
Food and Feeding Habits
Pigeons originally lived in high places—cliffs, ledges, and caves near the sea—that provided them with safety. Over time they have adapted to roosting and nesting on windowsills, roofs, eaves, steeples, and other man-made structures.
Pigeons typically have a gray body with iridescent feathers around their neck, a broad black band on their tail, and salmon-colored feet). Breeders have created color variations, so the body color may also be white, tan, black, or a combination of several colors. Pigeons have a strutting walk and their call is a long, drawn-out coo that can be heard quite easily. When they take off, their wing-tips touch, making a characteristic clicking sound.
Two native birds, the band-tailed pigeon (Columba fasciata,) and the mourning dove (Zenaida macroura,) are sometimes confused with domestic pigeons. Band-tailed pigeons are similar in size but have a purplish head and breast, a dark-tipped yellow bill, yellow feet, and a small white crescent on top of the neck. Mourning doves are smaller than domestic pigeons, have a long, pointed tail, large dark eyes, a dark bill, and a mournful who-ooh, who-who-who call.
Facts about Pigeons
Food and Feeding Habits
- Domestic pigeons mainly eat seeds
and grains.
- Pigeons also eat insects, fruit, and
vegetation, and scavenge food people provide for them—intentionally or
unintentionally.
- While young birds of other species
are fed a high-protein diet of insects, young pigeons are fed “pigeon milk”—a
milky-white fatty substance regurgitated from both parents’ crops.
- Pigeons feed on open ground such as
that found in parks and squares, on rooftops, at food-loading docks and garbage
dumps, and wherever people eat outdoors. They seem to prefer open feeding areas
that permit a speedy getaway if a threat is detected.
- Unlike most birds that must tip
their heads back to swallow water, pigeons can drink by sucking water directly
from a puddle or other water source.
Nesting and Roosting Sites
- Nesting and roosting sites are
protected from the elements and are situated on houses, barns, stadiums, and
grain elevators, as well as bridges, wharfs, and cliffs.
- Nests in continual use become solid
with droppings, feathers, and other debris.
Territory
- Domestic pigeons don’t migrate, but
if removed from a nesting area, they have a good homing ability and can return
from long distances. It is thought that this ability evolved to help them find
their own nests on cliffs covered with large colonies of similar looking nests.
- Pigeons are gregarious and eat,
roost, and nest in each other’s company whenever possible.
- Usually only the immediate area
around the nest site is defended against intruders.
- When pigeons are not involved in
courtship behavior, caring for young, or eating, their day is spent cooing,
preening, and sunbathing at their loafing and roosting sites. Sunbathing is
common on cool mornings.
Reproduction
- Domestic pigeons mate for life
unless separated by death or accident.
- Females usually lay two
cream-colored eggs in a nest loosely constructed from twigs, feathers, and
debris.
- Both male and female incubate the
eggs, which hatch after 18 days.
- The young are independent at four to
five weeks of age.
- Pigeons can raise four to five
broods annually. Under optimal conditions, new eggs are laid even before the
previous clutch has left the nest.
Mortality and Longevity
- Domestic cats are the main urban
predators of pigeons, but opossums, raccoons, foxes, weasels, and rats all eat
pigeons when they can access nests or catch adults.
- Urban-dwelling pigeons can also be
an important food for peregrine falcons and Cooper’s hawks. Crows sometimes eat
juvenile pigeons.
In captivity, pigeons commonly live up to 15 years, sometimes longer. In the wild (including urban areas) pigeons seldom live more than three years.
This information was provided by the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, Russell Link, and Michael Holmquist
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