A romantic view: Feeding pigeons in St Mark’s Square, Venice, by Antonio Paoletti (1834–1912) – what, no bird droppings?
In the past I have “appreciated” beautiful pests such as seagulls, magpies and starlings in this blog, but I think a flock of feral pigeons takes the biscuit (or anything else remotely edible).
A while back I was, would you believe, excited that a rainbow-hued feral pigeon arrived on my bird table. How pretty! What a novelty!
Rainbow pigeon on the bird table on March 31 this year
That was the end of March. Around that time I started putting out a slightly different (cheaper) wild birdfood mix, with more corn in it.
Then there were two similar pigeons – in fact I thought it was still only one as I didn’t see them together. But one is darker, a bit sooty. I realise now I had never really looked at feral pigeons before – they have great variety. Read more about it later in this post…
Then there were two…
So anyway, when I put the bird food out in the morning they were there, waiting. They would almost eat out of my hand. One day I scattered some seed on the ground, as it was easier for them to eat. BAD MOVE!
Suddenly there was a flock of seven pigeons! To be honest, they were quite interesting, as one was a sort of beige and white and one black-and-white piebald.
The picture hasn’t really captured the beige-ness of this one…
But you can have too much of a good thing. The last straw was one morning when they flew up in a flurry and one pooed on me! That’s it, I shouted at them, you’ve gone too far this time!
Three pigeons on the roof…
But this has made me ask questions about feral pigeons and where they originally came from. As usual, thank you to Wikipedia. Quite interesting…
The feral pigeon‘s Latin name is Columba livia, Columba meaning dove and livia meaning blue-ish. This is the same species as its domestic pigeon ancestors (feral just means “gone wild”) and as the original wild rock dove from which these were bred.
Every wonderful fancy pigeon, bred for show, is also a Columba livia, even though there are about 800 different breeds, all looking very different.
Fancy pigeons come in many colours and some have feathery feet…
The illustration above comes from a wonderful website called the Mumtaztic Pigeon Loft, which gives extensive information about fancy pigeon genetics. Amazing stuff!
All these pigeons and doves are Columba livia and all can interbreed. But the wild rock dove came originally from Europe, North Africa and Asia, where they lived happily on cliffs and rock ledges. No wonder their descendants find our tall city window ledges so appealing…
You looking at me? Feral pigeon on my upstairs window ledge…
The wild rock dove has a particular look (or “phenotype”) and I have noticed feral pigeons in Cardiff bus station with the same appearance.
Semi-wild rock doves in Shetland – picture from Wikimedia Commons…
According to the RSPB, “feral pigeons come in all shades, some bluer, others blacker – some are pale grey with darker chequered markings, others an unusual shade of dull brick-red or cinnamon-brown, and still others can be more or less white while others look exactly like wild rock doves.”
These doves started to be domesticated thousands of years ago. They are mentioned in ancient Mesopotamian and Egyptian records. They were bred for food and sport, and possibly religious purposes.
Today they abound in cities all over the world. St Mark’s Square in Venice and Trafalgar Square in London are famous for them. The cities of India are full of them. They were taken to the New World in the 17th century and now thrive among city skyscrapers.
Pigeons on the Empire State Building, New York – image from Wikimedia Commons…
I have often heard people ask: “Why do you never see a baby pigeon?” I don’t know the answer, but I have never seen one, either.
Baby pigeons are known as “squeakers” by enthusiasts but as “squabs” by people intending to cook them and eat them.
Baby pigeons, 10 days old, photographed by Aran Johnson
The words “dove” and “pigeon” seem to be interchangeable and as usual with English, they exist side by side because they came from Saxon roots (Germanic) and Norman roots (French).
“Dove” seems to come from Old English dufe, which in German is taube, while “pigeon” comes from Old French pijon, possibly from Latin pipio, to cheep.
We have two other members of the Columbidae family as regular visitors to our garden…
Big fat wood pigeon (Columba palumbus) in the garden in August…
While the wood pigeon (Columba palumbus) is in the same genus as the feral pigeon, the collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto) is in the same family but not the same genus.
A pair of collared doves (Streptopelia decaocto) in the garden…
In English “pigeon toed” means someone whose toes turn in like a pigeon’s. “Pigeon chested” does not, as you might think, mean with a huge puffed-up chest. It means a very narrow chest with the sternum in the middle sticking out like a bird’s. Then there is “pigeon livered”, which means more or less “lily-livered” (white livered) or cowardly.
As for “pigeon English”? Well that’s “pidgin English”, meaning a mix between two languages (such as Chinese and English), used for communication. “Pidgin” seems to be a Chinese mishearing or mis-pronunciation of the word “business”.
Talking of words – the homing pigeon is also a domesticated Columba livia trained to find its way home from great distances (for sport) and if used for carrying messages it is called a carrier pigeon. As for a passenger pigeon? That’s not used for carrying passengers! It’s a now extinct North American pigeon, Ectopistes migratorius, from the same family as all the pigeons and doves above but not the same genus. The name passenger comes from the French word “passager”, to pass by, as it was migratory.
I’ve eased off on the bird seed now and things seem to be calming down. We are back to one or two pigeons sitting around on the roof, looking out for an opportunity…
The two regular pigeons on the roof in July 2013
The Squirrelbasket 
Thanks for this post, Pat. I find feral pigeons fascinating.
Everyone knows about Charles Darwin’s finches, seen his voyage to the Galapagos Islands.
Such observations led Darwin to speculate on the process that we now call ‘evolution’. But he needed much more evidence that characteristics could be selected by breeding. If you read ‘Origin of Species’, you will find that the artificial breeding of show pigeons was an essential part of the development of his theories. The pigeons he himself bred experimentally were all left to the Natural History Museum in London, and you can read more about this at http://darwinspigeons.com/ and http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/collections-at-the-museum/museum-treasures/charles-darwin-pigeons/
There is currently a Feral Pigeon Project asking people to count the numbers of different colour types in local flocks.http://feralpigeonproject.com/
Every year, I carry out a number of ‘Breeding Bird Surveys’ for the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). One of my ‘squares’ covers part of Canton. My defined route includes two places where railway bridges cross roads, and both of these are roost sites for feral pigeons. I love the way these birds live their whole life cycle in such open view of humans; you can see them mating, sitting on eggs and feeding young if you use binoculars to peer into the gloom under the bridges.
I usually count around 150 feral pigeons during the survey.
Many birdwatchers ignore Feral Pigeons, even omitting them from lists of birds seen and survey data. But this is wrong – whether you like a species or not, its presence is likely to affect other bird species (basic Darwinism again). Perhaps increases in feral pigeons are associated with declines in other species, for example, or increases in predator species.
The peregrines that nest on Cardiff’s City Hall certainly enjoy regular pigeon meals!
I have analysed my historic data to see if Feral Pigeon numbers are decreasing as Wood Pigeon numbers increase in urban areas. As far as Canton is concerned, it seems all pigeon and dove species have increased over the last ten years.
That’s all VERY interesting information, Paul, and I will follow the links.
This last few weeks I have been taking much more notice of the bus station pigeons and those around the streets of Canton.
Yesterday I saw one that was almost white with a bit of brick red and another that was pale blue with darker stripes on its wings. And the piebald is a favourite!
If I get time (one day) I may take part in the survey.
I wish I could convince newsdesk it was all worth a feature for the Mail or Echo!
Best wishes 🙂
How fabulous – such a wealth of knowledge learnt in your post Pat (love the humour!) Shaz
Thanks Shaz – and for the retweet. I’m sorry I have been a bit uncommunicative online lately, but I am involved in an IT systems project at work and it has been very time-consuming and tiring!
Best wishes 🙂
A very entertaining and informative post, as always, Pat. I think we all harbour mixed feelings towards feral pigeons- for the most part we seem to love to hate them. Would we miss them if they weren’t around any more, I wonder? I’ve noticed that they seem to attract the same responses wherever you see them in the world – most adults regard them as vermin, some are afraid of them and children universally delight in chasing them.
What do you mean, children? I still delight in chasing them when I see them on city streets today. It just seems a natural reaction!
All the best 🙂
An excellent piece of writing and very interesting to read. The pictures of the pigeons in your garden are wonderful; so clear and what a lovely blue colour the rainbow pigeons present.
Thanks for your kind words, Chris.
I am spending a lot of time admiring your Somerset pictures these days, too, although I have never been to Wincanton itself, only the points of the square that contains it – Glastonbury, Warminster, Shaftesbury and Yeovil. I always thought of Warminster as half-way to Dorset on the old long-distance coaches from Wales via Cheltenham, as we stopped there for a wee!
Best wishes 🙂
A fascinating post. I never knew there were so many varieties and have never seen a pigeon chick before. We have a pair of wood pigeons who visit the garden, they can’t get the food out of the feeders but are clever enough to search the ground underneath. We never seen any other larger birds doing this.
Sarah x
Well I suppose pigeons have to come from somewhere! But they do seem to keep their chicks private…
I’m afraid whenever I see a big fat wood pigeon in the garden (which is often), I shout through the window: “P-i-i-i-g!” (if you get my drift, that’s pig but not said in a short way…)
I have never seen the wood pigeon around the feeders – usually too busy nibbling the tops off green things it shouldn’t!
All the best 🙂
The Feral Pigeon Project now has an Android app to help with the collection of data. All collected data is then shared with BirdTrack. For further details, head to http://feralpigeonproject.com/new-mobile-phone-app/
Actually I’m on an iPhone, but hopefully I will look in more detail at your project soon.
I have absolutely no time at the moment to get involved in anything too complicated, but just this weekend I have noticed another new feral pigeon at the bird table. I am on the verge of making a note of all the plumage colours of “my” pigeons, just for my own interest. It’s great they can all be identified as individuals because they have such variety. I currently have: Two very dark, sooty pigeons (“the twins”), one a pretty standard colour, although the wings are speckled not barred, one beige speckled and now one with a rainbow head and breast but pale plain beige wings and a light tail. I have also seen a piebald one and one sooty but with a white underwing…
I really must look at your project!
Best wishes 🙂