Bird Feeder Visitor – Domestic Pigeon
Photos: Arne Ader
Translation: Liis from Forum
Everybody knows the domestic pigeon or domestic dove. The basic colour of the upper parts is grey, white rump, wing coverts grey, light underwings. The wings have characteristic broad bands. Tail grey, dark at end, and during flight usually spread out like a fan. The throat and breast often have a iridescent sheen. Eyes dark red, beak dark grey, feet pink.
The free-living domestic pigeons originate from rock pigeons, Columba livia, nesting in western Europe, and domestic carrier pigeons escaped from dove-cots. By crossing of the species today’s feral domestic pigeon has evolved. Because of this the colour of the plumage varies widely, from white to nearly black, but the basic form still quite clearly resembles its relative, the rock pigeon.
The domestic pigeon is probably the first foreign bird species that remained and became naturalised in Estonia, having been brought in as a domestic bird from Germany, and was a common inhabitant of our cities by the beginning of the 20th century.
Domestic pigeons in the bird feeder.
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