Pigeons are commonly seen in the UK and are loved by some and loathed by others. On the whole, I suspect that those of us that tolerate pigeons are not gardeners in the main as they can be a real problem to those that have recently sown seeds or are growing lettuce or cabbages!
What birds are pigeons afraid of? The pigeon has several natural predators in the wild that its scared of but the main pigeons’ predators are Falcons and Sparrowhawks. However, other lesser-known predators include, Owls, Foxes, Ferrets, Snakes, Rats, Cats, Dogs and Humans.
If, like me, you want to know a little more about this much-maligned bird, read on!
What are pigeons favored foods?
Pigeons eat a wide range of food so its difficult to say what their ‘favourite’ food is but they certainly don’t appear that fussy. It also seems to depend on where they decide to roost as a ‘city’ pigeon will have access to different food sources to that of pigeon living in the countryside.
One striking difference to me, having lived both in London and the countryside was that of the variation of what a pigeon eats, but it should perhaps not be such a revelation on reflection.
While living in London, I would often have bread leftover that was approaching its ‘best before’ date and I would occasionally decide to throw it out to the birds. Within minutes, the first birds that were on the scene were pigeons, and they would hurriedly gobble down as much as they could, often while their competition was looking the other way and being distracted by petty squabbles.
In contrast, when I moved out of London, into the countryside and repeated the same exercise. I found that I could leave the bread outside for hours before a pigeon would begin to show any kinds of interest. I often found myself collecting the bread back up before the evening as I did not want to attract foxes or rats.
If they did fly down to inspect the bread, they would look at what I had left out for them and simply carry on walking. At first, I thought that the pigeons had left the bread because we had a ‘better class of pigeon’ in the garden, but it was more likely to be a simple case of an abundance of natural food in the area. Bread has a meagre nutritional value, and the birds seemed to know this.
It was spring, so there was certainly no shortage of food. Pigeons eat a wide variety of plant materials, especially new buds, new leaves and shoots. Our local Ash tree seems to be a particular favourite with our feathered friends.
Why do pigeons eat grit?
As you might have noticed, Pigeons do not have teeth and as a result, they do not break up food in their mouths as humans do. The chewing process in humans starts the digestion process before swallowing. Pigeons cannot obviously do this so instead Pigeons use their gizzard.
Their gizzard is located in the hind part of the stomach and is specifically adapted for grinding up food. It’s a thick muscular wall which may contain small stones or grit. This grit is an essential part of pigeons diet, and you will often see pigeons pecking at the roadside or on driveways to supplement it to aid in their digestion of food.
Humans do not have gizzards!
What differences are there between male and female pigeons?
There are some key differences between male and female pigeons. Male pigeons tend to be the angry ones and chase other pigeons. They are the pigeons that are always squabbling over something, whereas the females tend to be the calm ones.
Both male and female pigeons coo but the males coo typically comes when they are trying to impress their mate. If you have ever watched pigeons, you may have also noticed that the male will often pursue the female at the same time as bowing its head and scraping its tail feathers along the ground— the typical pigeon mating ritual.
As with many other species, male pigeons are usually larger than females. The males head also tends to be round while the female head appears flatter.
Do they mate for life?
In the majority of cases, pigeons do mate for life. They are monogamous and will stick with the only mate they choose. Once they have chosen their mate they will go on to produce several broods together over the course of their lifespan.
Where and how do they build their nests?
Pigeons build their nests in tall trees in the countryside, but they can also be found nesting on building ledges, rafters, beam and under bridges, in fact anywhere they can obtain cover. On a visit to my local station, I came across two pigeon nests tucked away under the station roof, nicely pinned in place by the pigeon spikes put in place to stop them nesting!
Their nests tend to be flimsy and made of twigs or small sticks and it is thought that the droppings of the broods produced build-up, helping to harden inside the nest, creating a hard shell that keeps the nest intact for quite some time.
How many eggs do pigeons lay?
Typically the female pigeon lays between one and three eggs. They are white in appearance and when hatched, baby pigeons are called ‘squabs’. The squabs grow extremely fast are typically ready to fly around 4-6 weeks after hatching. Unlike other species, before their maiden flight, they do not step outside of the nest and if you were to pick up a ‘squab’ and return it to the nest, the parents will not abandon their young.
Why do pigeons bob their heads?
During an experience back in 1978, a study into why pigeons bob their heads was conducted. This study changed the assumptions that were made about why pigeons bob their heads. The primary discovery was that instead of bobbing their heads, they were in fact, pushing them forward.
During the research, they recorded slow-motion footage of a pigeon and discovered two main phases of a pigeons head movement. This movement they named ‘thrust’ and ‘hold’ phases.
During the ‘thrust’ phase, the pigeon would push its head forward relative to its body. This stage was then followed by a ‘hold’ phase in which the head remained still, which meant that it moved backwards relative to the forward-moving body.
They believed a ‘bob’ was the head sliding smoothly forward and then waiting for the body to catch up. The human eye sees this as a bob because it happens so quickly. This is not surprising given that the ‘bob’ happens on average around five to eight times a second while the pigeon is travelling
Visual processing
During this experiment, in which the pigeon was placed on a treadmill, they concluded that if the pigeon’s surroundings stayed relatively stationary, the pigeons head would not bob. This was a fantastic discovery. Using the same logic but in reverse, they concluded that by thrusting its head forward, the pigeon could stabilise its view of the moving environment around them.
Essentially, by keeping their heads still in a moving space, their image of the world would not be blurred by motion. This is a similar effect to hitting pause on the motion for a fraction of a second. This is a beneficial tactic as it enables the pigeon to see food or threats better. If the pigeons head moved at the same rate as that of their bodies, they would undoubtedly have difficulty keeping a stable image.
During this experiment, they also discovered that simply walking along with a pigeon was enough to trigger the bird into bobbing its head because the world was moving around it.
