WILD ROCK PIGEONS

      Today, wild rock pigeons live in cities and farmland throughout much of the world, including here in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  These beautiful, wild birds have adapted well to the buildings and agricultural lands of people, wherever they occur.  Rock pigeons traditionally live and nest on Mediterranean Sea Cliffs in Europe, and were long ago domesticated for meat, eggs and as show birds.

     The attractive wild rock pigeons have gray feathering all over with darker markings on their wings.  They also have white rumps, red legs and a light-sheen of green and purple on their necks.  However, there are many domestic varieties of rock doves these days with feathering from white to brown or black and any number of plumage patterns.  

     Some of those domestics escape captivity, join flocks of wild, gray pigeons, and pair up with those feral birds.  The result is an unending variety of feather patterns on free-roaming birds.  But a majority of pigeons still display the original gray plumage patterns that camouflage them on rocky cliffs.               

     In Lancaster County, wild rock pigeons roost overnight and nest in barns, under larger bridges and on the cliffs of limestone quarries, feed on grain and weed seeds in harvested fields, and perch conspicuously on silos, the tallest structures in farmland.  There must be at least one opening into each barn to allow pigeons access to its support beams where they roost and raise young.    

     Rock pigeons pair for life and raise young in staggered broods of two each from March into September.  Each male courts his mate by dancing and bowing vigorously before her, cooing all the while to add to his elegant performance.  Finally, each pair locks beaks and the male mounts his mate to fertilize her.  

     Each female lays two white eggs in a skimpy, grass cradle on a support beam in a barn or under a bridge, or on a ledge of a quarry wall.  When the young hatch, both parents take turns feeding the young a porridge of pre-digested seeds and grain and throat phlegm directly into the youngsters' bills.  

     When the first brood of two young are two weeks old, the female lays two eggs in another sheltered nest.  The pair of adults now take turns brooding the second clutch of eggs and feeding the first brood of offspring.  When the first brood of young fledge, their mother lays a third clutch of eggs in the nursery the first brood just vacated.  And so it goes all summer, raising brood after brood between two cradles.  A good pair of rock pigeons, if there are no predation or accidents, could rear about twelve young a year.  But crows and brown rats eat some of the eggs and small young, and wind blows some nests, eggs and all, off bridges and quarry walls.  

     Some fledged pigeons of any age are killed and eaten by peregrine falcons and Cooper's hawks in Lancaster County cropland.  When perched on silos or walking, with head-bobbing, about on open fields after seeds and grain, pigeons are vulnerable to attack.  I've seen a few pigeons being eaten by one or the other of those raptors.  I saw one peregrine ingesting a pigeon on top of a roadside utility pole in local farmland.

     Wild rock pigeons are common, attractive birds that have adapted well to human-made habitats and activities throughout the world.  They help liven farmland and cities with their beautiful presence.  And they are an example of how adaptable life can be.  



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