Pigeon-like Birds
Rock Dove
Columba livia
Description
13 1/2" (34 cm). The common pigeon of
towns and cities. Chunky, with short rounded tail. Typically
bluish-gray with 2 narrow black wing bands and broad black terminal
tail band; white rump. There are many color variants, ranging from
all white through rusty to all black.
Voice
Soft guttural cooing.
Habitat
City parks, suburban gardens, and
farmlands.
Nesting
2 white eggs in a crude nest lined with
sticks and debris, placed on a window ledge, building, bridge, or
cliff.
Range
Native to Old World. Introduced and
established in most of North America from central Canada
southward.
Discussion
Everyone knows Rock Doves, or domestic
pigeons, as city birds that subsist on handouts or country birds
that nest in pigeon cotes on farms. Few have seen them nesting in
their ancestral home-cliff ledges or high among rocks. Over the
centuries, many strains and color varieties have been developed in
captivity through selective breeding. Since pigeons have been
accused of carrying human diseases, there have been several attempts
to eradicate them from our cities, but they are so prolific that
little progress has been made in this
endeavor.
Pigeon-like Birds