PIGEON PERSONALITY

Whether we are observing the antics of woodpigeons (Columba palumbus) or feeding feral pigeons (columbids of mixed genetics), there is a tendency by some people towards an unfriendly attitude to pigeons because of mess, roosting nuisance, eating food crops or even that they carry diseases – they do but no more than many animals and you are unlikely to catch anything unless you habituate a pigeon loft or have regular close contact with them.

Anyway, at the end of last year I read a fascinating and amusing article in New Scientist by Joshua Howgego pointing to several interesting and rather endearing facts about these birds beyond their celebrated navigational and homing instincts that most people know about.

• It seems male pigeons sometimes clap themselves after mating! They take flight and then smack their wings together in the air. I have never noticed that but I shall have to look out for this behaviour.

• Like flamingos and emperor penguins, pigeons produce a kind of milk. The British Trust for Ornithology notes that some of the cells in the lining of the crop “…begin to produce milk during the final few days of the [egg] incubation period. The fluid-filled cells containing the crop milk are sloughed and it is these that will form the only source of nourishment during the chicks first few days of life”.

• Pigeons make really bad nests, often just a few sticks, even though they manage to breed so successfully – there are over five million breeding pairs of woodpigeons in Britain. There is even a page on Twitter/X[1] with pictures of some of these “nests”!

Like almost all birds, the woodpigeon has some protections under the Wildlife & Countryside Act. Despite their large numbers, they have been placed in the Amber category of the Birds of Conservation Concern.

Betts Ecology have pigeons on most of our sites. Do take  time to watch these fascinating and attractive birds that can recognise individual human faces. They were even loved by Charles Darwin!

There is a good book on pigeon watching if you want more information[2].

Post scriptum

After writing this, I read, sadly, that the shooting ban on a related columbid, the turtle dove Streptopelia turtur, which is almost extinct in Britain, is being lifted across Spain, Italy and France because they say the population has recovered. This will mean hunters will be able to shoot 132,000 of these beautiful and intelligent birds which mate for life and fly annually from sub-Saharan Africa across and into Europe to breed. This pigeon relative is globally classed as vulnerable to extinction because of hunting and habitat loss. So very sad.

[1] https://x.com/badnests?lang=en

[2] A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching: Getting to Know the World's Most Misunderstood Bird by Rosemary Mosco.