Surprising Facts About Pigeons

For as long as I can remember, I have had an interest in pigeons. I never thought of them as rats with wings or as a nuisance. They just seemed comical to me and they made me smile. To me, they were just large, stocky doves with a rumbling, throaty coo that was quite pleasing to the ear. But wait, did you catch that? Pigeons are doves. Those drab, gray birds that inhabit metropolitan areas and highway underpasses are doves? That's right. They're part of the dove family known as columbidae and are sometimes referred to as rock doves or rock pigeons. Their scientific name is Columba livia. Columba means dove and livia refers to their lead gray hue. Found on every continent except for Antarctica, these birds can easily be identified by a stout, hefty body, a small head, and a short, slender bill. One of the best ways to learn about any bird is to simply plant yourself down in its vicinity and watch and listen. Put down the phone, put down the field guide, and just watch the show unfold in front of you. What you'll notice about pigeons that's different from most other birds is that they come in a wide variety of colors and patterns. We all know the standard dusty gray pigeon with two bars on each wing, but look around and you'll notice that some don't have wing bars but dark speckles instead. Some have patches of white, a color pattern known as piebald. Others are charcoal colored or even black. And my personal favorite, the cinnamon pigeon with its reddish brown feathers. Aren't they just beautiful? Also, notice the green and purple iridescent neck patch. These special feathers contain small overlapping barbules that can absorb and reflect light in varying amounts. In pigeons, they may appear more purple than green or vice versa, depending on light and movement. Birds can see ultraviolet light, allowing them to see the world and each other much differently than we do. Their vision is tetrachromic or four-color vision, meaning that they can see red, green, blue, and ultraviolet. In the eyes of birds, these feathers pop out and glow with a lustrous shine, lighting up like fireworks. It's a key component in their courting display and conveys their health and vitality. While observing a flock, see if you can spot anomalies in appearance. I once came upon a pigeon whose head feathers were growing in the opposite direction, giving it an odd sort of head crest. This is a delight to find and makes one wonder about the bird's genetic lineage. Also, see if you can catch a glimpse of the color of their toenails. Pigeons have toenails that are ivory, black, or sometimes you'll find that they have a combination of both. You may also have the fortune of finding a pigeon who has feathers on his feet. It might be just a scant amount of feathers that barely cover each toe, or it may have so many feathers that it would seem to be mopping the ground with every step it takes. Pigeon eye color also has diversity, though not as much as feather color. The most common eye color is the orange-red, but you may also see some with brown eyes or a combination of white and orange-red. Young pigeons who have recently fledged will have brown eyes until they reach maturity, when they will finally take on their adult eye color. With so much variation in appearance, there is an endless supply of entertainment available, but it gets even better. Another really unique fact about pigeons is how they drink water. You may have watched a songbird or a duck dip their beak into water and then raise their head so the water can roll down their throats, and then they repeat this several more times. With pigeons, their beaks are basically living straws. They can siphon water through their beaks without having to lift up their heads. They simply lower their beaks into the water and keep it there while they slurp up the hydration. It's genius and super efficient, not to mention it's just neat to watch. Another behavior you might observe is to find a pigeon laying on its side with one wing up in the air, tail feathers fanned out, rump feathers fluffed up, and a dazed look in his eyes. Upon first glance, you may wonder if it is sick or injured, but actually the opposite is true. This bird is blissfully content. Pigeons sun themselves and enjoy the opportunity to soak up some warm rays when the opportunity arises. Scientists aren't quite sure why they do this. Maybe they just enjoy a good vitamin D session. It is thought that it helps them warm up on cold mornings, maintains the oils on their feathers, and possibly kills feather parasites. If nothing else, it may simply just feel relaxing and soothing. Life as a wild bird is not easy, and who couldn't use some R&R now and then? Pigeons are ground feeders and are most comfortable running along the ground picking up the food that we humans leave behind. When not performing this valuable public service, they enjoy protein-rich grains such as peas, wheat, oats, and corn. They may hang around grain elevators cleaning up spilled grain or in fields eating the seeds of various grasses. Insects and other invertebrates are also possible menu items. One thing is for sure, when it comes to a pigeon's diet, they are very flexible and adaptable, yet another reason they frequent areas where there are humans. Male pigeons show off for females by inflating their throats and letting out an undulating, throaty coo. They bow their heads, strut, and fan their tails to show what a good choice of mate they would be. When they inflate their necks, the iridescent feathers pop out and shine. As they strut around the female, they drag their fanned-out tail feathers on the ground. Now, who wouldn't be impressed by that display? Notice that when pigeons coo, they keep their beaks closed, which is the opposite of songbirds. The distinct cooing sound is produced by air passing through the syrinx and inflating an upper esophageal sac. This allows the sound to radiate out more efficiently than it would with an open beak. Pigeons will mate all year round, even in the winter. This is one of the reasons why they are so ubiquitous. It also means that you can see this courting behavior anytime, as well as anywhere. When you start paying attention to the pigeons in your area, you may see courting on top of a street light, a utility pole, a building ledge, or a city sidewalk. Any place that is big enough to fit a pigeon is a good place to strut and show off. For the most part, pigeons are monogamous and stay in a close pair bond with their mate as long as they are both alive. If one dies, the survivor will go back into the dating scene in search of a new mate. Feral pigeons usually only live up to three years. Pigeons are devoted parents, tending equally to incubating eggs and providing for their young. They make a flimsy nest of sticks and twigs on a flat surface, such as a building ledge or a ventilation shaft. They look for real estate that is sheltered from the elements and predators and lay one or two eggs. They can lay six to seven clutches of eggs per year, though winter broods are typically less successful unless they live in a warmer climate. Building a nest on a ledge of a city high-rise makes sense for a pigeon. It harkens back to their ancestors who nested in rocky cliffs, hence the name rock dove. This is another reason why we find so many pigeons in cities. Humans provide artificial cliffs and the pigeons just couldn't be happier about it, not to mention all the free food that humans leave out in the open, which really helps out. One of the unique features of pigeons is their ability to feed the nestlings crop milk. Both males and females produce milk from the lining of their crop. The crop is a muscular pouch that is an extension of the esophagus where food is stored and ferments before moving further along the digestive tract. Pigeon parents feed their chicks crop milk for the first three days of its life, providing the chick with much-needed protein, fat, antioxidants, and immune boosters. Pigeons have been living alongside humans for thousands of years. People have raised them for meat and have even used their poop for making fertilizer, leather, and gunpowder. We have kept them for companions, show animals, and have bred all manner of wild-looking traits into them. Charles Darwin adored pigeons and kept several different breeds for study and companionship. They featured prominently in the first chapter of his book, On the Origin of Species. They have several appearances in the Torah and the Bible, both as sacrifice and as a symbol of peace and hope. There are depictions of pigeon-esque shaped birds even on ancient Egyptian tombs. They have been used since antiquity to deliver messages. With no email or cell phone in sight, it was pigeons who we relied upon for communication. Ancient Romans used them to deliver wartime intelligence, the outcome of chariot races, and the results of the very first Olympic Games. In the 12th century, Genghis Khan used messenger pigeons, setting up a network across Asia and Eastern Europe. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, pigeons carrying messages of intel and personal letters on microfiche were released from hot air balloons and then sent back home. Pigeons saved the lives of many soldiers in World War I and World War II. One such notable pigeon is Cher Ami, who saved the lives of U.S. soldiers of the 77th Division, also known as the Lost Battalion, in World War I. Even though Cher Ami was shot and sustained serious injuries, she was able to make it to headquarters and deliver valuable information, saving many lives. For her bravery, she received France's highest military honors, and today she can be seen on display at the Smithsonian. Pigeons don't migrate, they're home bodies. Those who keep pigeons know that they can let them out during the day and they will return to their roost every night. They can fly at speeds of over 60 miles per hour and as far as 600 miles from their loft. It is believed that they possess the ability to sense the Earth's magnetic field and that they can use the position of the sun to work out direction. That's pretty amazing. You can take a pigeon to a new location and it will always return home. What it won't do is leave its warm and safe loft to deliver a reply. So in order to send a response, you have to send a second pigeon whose loft is at the first message's origin point. Pigeons can take off almost vertically. Military engineers have tried to design aircraft that can take off vertically in tight spaces, but the pigeon just has them beat. By using their powerful legs, they can jump upwards and flap their wings eight to nine times per second, generating lift on the upstroke and the downstroke. While this uses a tremendous amount of energy, it's helpful if they need to get away from a hungry predator. Pigeons are prey for the world's fastest animal, the peregrine falcon, so it's a useful strategy in these situations. So maybe you're a fan of pigeons, or maybe you're not. But either way, you don't want them nesting under the eave of your house, leaving a mess of poop everywhere and clogging up your rain gutters. Not to mention that you may not want to hear exuberant cooing all the time. Remember that the ideal nest space for a pigeon is someplace secluded, protected, and that has a flat surface. Keep the area around your home clean and tidy to deter them from finding a sheltered space. You can put up chimes, pinwheels, or strips of shiny paper, things that move, to deter them from nesting. Since pigeons nest on flat surfaces, see if you can adjust a surface to make it slanted, perhaps by using a bird slope end cap, rendering it undesirable for a nesting location. If you find a nest with chicks, don't attempt to move it or separate the chicks from the parents or they will die. Wait until after they fledge at about four weeks. There are some things you shouldn't do. Don't put up netting around parts of your home as other birds and small critters can get caught in it and die. Plastic owl decoys are another common method to keep pigeons away, but these simply don't work. Because the decoys don't move, the pigeons quickly figure it out and they may use them as a place to perch or just ignore them completely. The owls represented on these decoys are nocturnal ground hunters and they will rarely come in contact with pigeons anyway. Bird spikes are supposed to make it uncomfortable for pigeons to land, but it backfires at times and birds figure out how to use the spikes to their advantage. Imagine if you walked up to a park bent but it was covered in spikes. Feeling very tired? You might find a small corner of the bench that is free of spikes, so you kind of make it work. You may see spikes on a building and still see a pigeon nesting behind it or even on top of it with a thicker than normal nest. Even small songbirds have been undeterred and built nests on top of spikes. Whether it's a pigeon or a songbird, they're smarter and craftier than we give them credit for. But there's another side to consider about spikes. Sometimes birds are injured by running into spikes and young get killed. There are kinder ways of dealing with this issue, not just for birds, but all wildlife and they are worth looking into. So I hope you enjoyed learning about what makes pigeons such unique and special birds and that it deepened your appreciation of them. What was the most interesting fact that you learned? Do you have a fondness for pigeons as well? If so, leave a comment down below. And as always, I hope you enjoyed and happy birding!