City Bird - Country Bird
The resident flock of rock doves (feral pigeons) flies in to land on Vertebrae Rock.
People tend to think of pigeons as city birds but they are quite common in rural and even wilderness settings. They come by the name of rock doves honestly as they roost and nest in cavities that line the sandstone cliffs near my home. I find them rather beautiful with their iridescent neck feathers and bright orange eyes.
A rock dove perches in a cavity in a sandstone cliff.
Pigeons were the first domesticated birds, raised for food in many countries. The feral pigeons we are used to seeing were imported to the United States as a ready source of protein in the early 1600’s. Escapees from the original flocks managed to survive quite well in the wild and their numbers increased over time, even as we continued to decimate the population of the native passenger pigeon to the point of extinction by the early 1900’s.
Our local population of rock doves consists of somewhere between fifty and one hundred birds, a number that hasn’t changed much over the years. Limiting factors to the size of the flock are the availability of food and the number of predators.
Adult pigeons are preyed upon by falcons, hawks and eagles while the young are threatened by ravens, magpies, bobcats, snakes and much more.
A pigeon shelters on the top of a vehicle tire as a prairie falcon circles overhead.
A number of years ago my husband decided to try his hand at raising chickens, an experiment that lasted for about three years before we gave the birds away. During the time we had the coop, a number of pigeons moved into the roosting boxes - I suspect because the chickens kept away the snakes that might otherwise eat the pigeon chicks. It was a rare opportunity to watch the entire process of pigeon raising from egg laying to fledging squabs.
The images, above, were taken about ten years ago. They show the unique appearance of pigeon babies, which are dependent on their parents for about a month after birth. In the first photo you can see regurgitated food on the breast of the parent bird that had been feeding the youngsters.
Once we stopped raising chickens, the pigeons moved out of the coop and back into the nearby sandstone cliffs.
The most consistent consumers of pigeon babies, our local raven pair, often spend much of the day hanging out side-by-side with adult pigeons on top of Vertebrae Rock.
To hear more about the Rock Doves that are our neighbors, be sure to listen to my podcast on the subject by clicking the button below, or by downloading the latest episode from Apple Podcasts or Spotify.