Rock Dove or Pigeon

(Pic from Birds of Our Yard, at President Avenue)

The common pigeon of towns and cities

Voice – soft guttural cooing

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

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.