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Rock Dove

Rock Dove

Columba livia

Identify the Rock Dove by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

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The Rock Dove is the wild ancestor of the familiar feral pigeon. Wild birds are pale grey with two bold black wing bars, a white lower back and a neck glossed green and purple. Originally a bird of sea cliffs and gorges in southern Europe, North Africa and western Asia, it has given rise to about a thousand domestic breeds and feral populations in towns worldwide, where buildings replace cliffs.

Did you know?

  • Pigeon chicks are called “squabs”.
  • Rock Doves have remarkable homing ability and were long used to carry messages.

Voice

Song
Call

About the species

Identification

A medium-sized pigeon (30–35 cm) with a grey body, two black wing bars, a dark tail band and often a white rump; the neck is glossed green and purple. Feral birds vary greatly in colour. It resembles Stock Dove, but the Rock Dove's back and upperwing are usually paler grey and the rump white, which helps separate them.

Family

Columbidae

Size

Large (crow)

Colours

grey, black, green, white

About the habitat

Rocky coasts, sea cliffs and gorges, and now above all towns, farmyards, ports, quarries and bridges with ledges for nesting.

Diet

Mainly seeds and grain, also buds and berries; in towns it readily takes spilled grain and food scraps. Like other pigeons, it can drink by suction.

Behaviour

Usually seen in flocks, foraging on the ground with a walking, head-bobbing gait. Flight is fast and direct with sharp wingbeats and wing claps, and it often glides with wings held in a V. It roosts and nests on ledges of cliffs, buildings and bridges. Pairs are monogamous, and both adults feed the squabs with “pigeon milk” from the crop. The call is a soft, rolling coo.

Sources

Photo: Satdeep Gill, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Common pigeon at Waterlow Park, London 01.jpg

Sound: Sonothèque ADVL, XC1136258, CC0 1.0 https://xeno-canto.org/1136258

Sound: Marie-Lan Taÿ Pamart, XC541143, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/541143

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_dove

See also