🐾 Rock Pigeon

Rock Pigeon

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Who it is

• Scientific name: Columba livia
• Family & relatives: A bird in the pigeon and dove family Columbidae, related to doves and, more distantly, to the extinct dodo.
• How to spot it: A plump gray bird with a small head, a shiny green-and-purple neck, two dark wing bars, and red-pink feet.

Its body & abilities

• Size: About 29 to 37 cm long from beak to tail.
• Weight: Usually 240 to 380 g (about half a pound).
• Body & adaptations: Strong chest muscles power fast flight, and it can drink by sucking water up without lifting its head.
• Top speed: A strong flier that can reach about 80 km/h (50 mph) and even faster when racing home.
• Strength: Famous for finding its way home over hundreds of kilometers, which is why people use homing pigeons.
• Senses: Sharp eyesight that sees colors and even ultraviolet light, plus a great sense of direction.
• Growing up: Chicks called squabs hatch blind and helpless, are fed special crop milk by both parents, and fly in about four to six weeks.

Where it lives

• Habitat: Cliffs and rocky ledges in the wild, and buildings, bridges, and city squares in towns.
• Where in the world: Found in cities and countryside almost worldwide, on every continent except Antarctica.
• Territory: Pairs defend a small nesting ledge but feed together in flocks over a wider area.

What it eats

• Diet: A seed-eating bird that also enjoys grains and, in cities, crumbs that people drop.
• Favorite foods: Seeds, grains, berries, and scraps of bread, popcorn, and other human food in towns.
• How it hunts: It pecks the ground in busy groups, walking and bobbing its head as it searches for food.

How it behaves

• How it moves: Walks with a head-bobbing strut, takes off with a clatter of wings, and flies swiftly and directly.
• When it is active: Active by day, feeding in the morning and evening and roosting together at night.
• Family life: Very social, gathering in flocks and often mating for life with one partner.
• How it talks: Coos softly to its mate and claps its wings in flight during courtship displays.
• Babies: A pair usually lays two white eggs, which both parents take turns keeping warm for about 18 days.

Its place in nature

• Role in nature: It spreads seeds and is food for hawks and falcons; the peregrine falcon is its main predator.
• Conservation: Listed as Least Concern by the IUCN, common and abundant all over the world.
• Dangers: Dies mainly from predators like falcons, from cars, and from cold or disease.

Life & legacy

• How long it lives: Around 3 to 5 years in the wild and up to about 15 years when cared for by people.
• In our culture: A worldwide symbol of peace and of coming home, and a hero that carried messages in past wars.
• Where to see it: City parks, squares, and rooftops in almost any town, plus cliffs along coasts and rivers.
• Fun fact: Homing pigeons can find their way home from hundreds of kilometers away, even from places they have never been.