Pigeons and doves
constitute the bird ‘clade Columbidae’
that include some 310 species. In
general the terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat
interchangeably. In ornithological practice, there is a tendency for
"dove" to be used for smaller species and "pigeon" for
larger ones. Pigeons and doves are stout-bodied birds with short necks, and
have short slender bills. The species
commonly referred to just as "pigeon" is the Feral Rock Pigeon,
common in many cities.
There are so many
of them at Ramakrishna Mission at Mylapore too – they are found in many other
places. Visit any town or city, you are
most likely to see them everywhere – the common noisy urban bird.
Those grey, white, black and brown-feathered friends that sit or walk,
bobbing their heads, on pavements, walls, parapets and buildings cooing
sweetly, raining down their excrement and odd feather.But there is something
odd about pigeons. We see them old and hobbling, mature and wise, young and a
little foolish, playing a game of proverbial chicken with the oncoming traffic.
Yet we never see their babies.
Which,
given the abundance of pigeons, begs the question why? – Pigeons, pigeons everywhere and not a baby in sight –
says an interesting article in BBC of date.
Obviously they are
not born big – they are hatched from eggs and fledgling pigeons are everywhere,
though they are not easy to identify. Feral pigeons – the ones we see in our
cities – are descended from rock doves, and remain essentially the same bird.
Their tastes might be a little more cosmopolitan, but when it comes to
reproduction they still take after their wild rock dove ancestors, which are
very secretive when it comes to situating their nests. BBC writes that the rock dove Columbia liva
likes to construct its nest on the ledges on cliff faces. “In its natural and
wild state,” as stated WilliamYarrell in
A History of British Birds, the rock dove “inhabits high rocks near the
sea-coast, in the cavities of which it lives the greater part of the year.”On
the island of Orkney, in Scotland, UK, for example, 19th Century ornithologists
observed that the rock dove “is very numerous, breeding in the crevices of the
rocks, but the nests are placed at such a depth that it is impossible to reach
them.”
When squabs (!) finally
fly the nest they are fully grown. Over the
Scottish island of Shetland, others
noted rock doves occupying “deep subterranean caverns, the mouths of which are
open to the sea.”Way back when humans spent more time hanging in and around
caves, nobody would have batted an eyelid at the sight of a baby pigeon, often
called a squab.In fact, the excavation of a cave in Gibraltar reveals that
Neanderthals were keen on eating pigeons before modern humans even reached
Europe. Much later, after Neanderthals had vanished and Homo sapiens took over
this same site, they too were dining out on pigeon flesh. In prehistorical
times then, it’s likely that baby pigeons, or squab, were not only often seen,
but often on the menu.
But today, with an
absence of edgy cliffs, rocky crags and dingy caves in our cities, the feral
pigeon must make do, constructing its nest in whatever out-of-the-way, covered
spots it can find, in abandoned
buildings or beneath bridges.
So it is not that
juvenile pigeon is ashamed of its appearance, stay in the nest for a very long
time: the nestling period from hatching to fledging typically lasts more than
40 days, roughly twice that of most garden birds; but that the adults keep them
away from the view, feeding their chicks with a regurgitated “crop milk” rich
in protein and fat. So when squabs finally fly the nest they are fully grown and
virtually indistinguishable from adults.With a keen eye, however, it is
possible to spot a fledged but still-juvenile pigeon.
In culinary
terminology, squab is a young domestic pigeon, typically under four weeks old,
or its meat.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
21st
Sept. 2015.
Society Magazine
In 2012, I had
posted on ‘pigeons of Marina’ - Pigeons are commonly found on Temples – the
walls of Sri Parthasarathi Swami Temple have them in large numbers. Every morning at Marina beach, opposite the
famous Vivekanandar House or to be precise opposite the Lady Willington
teachers’ training institution, pigeons
assemble in thousands – to eat the feed spread by a group from Sowcarpet.
Pigeons and doves
constitute the bird ‘clade Columbidae’
that include some 310 species. In
general the terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat
interchangeably. In ornithological practice, there is a tendency for
"dove" to be used for smaller species and "pigeon" for
larger ones. Pigeons and doves are stout-bodied birds with short necks, and
have short slender bills. The species
commonly referred to just as "pigeon" is the Feral Rock Pigeon,
common in many cities.
There are so many
of them at Ramakrishna Mission at Mylapore too – they are found in many other
places. Visit any town or city, you are
most likely to see them everywhere – the common noisy urban bird.
Those grey, white, black and brown-feathered friends that sit or walk,
bobbing their heads, on pavements, walls, parapets and buildings cooing
sweetly, raining down their excrement and odd feather.But there is something
odd about pigeons. We see them old and hobbling, mature and wise, young and a
little foolish, playing a game of proverbial chicken with the oncoming traffic.
Yet we never see their babies.
Which,
given the abundance of pigeons, begs the question why? – Pigeons, pigeons everywhere and not a baby in sight –
says an interesting article in BBC of date.
Obviously they are
not born big – they are hatched from eggs and fledgling pigeons are everywhere,
though they are not easy to identify. Feral pigeons – the ones we see in our
cities – are descended from rock doves, and remain essentially the same bird.
Their tastes might be a little more cosmopolitan, but when it comes to
reproduction they still take after their wild rock dove ancestors, which are
very secretive when it comes to situating their nests. BBC writes that the rock dove Columbia liva
likes to construct its nest on the ledges on cliff faces. “In its natural and
wild state,” as stated WilliamYarrell in
A History of British Birds, the rock dove “inhabits high rocks near the
sea-coast, in the cavities of which it lives the greater part of the year.”On
the island of Orkney, in Scotland, UK, for example, 19th Century ornithologists
observed that the rock dove “is very numerous, breeding in the crevices of the
rocks, but the nests are placed at such a depth that it is impossible to reach
them.”
When squabs (!) finally
fly the nest they are fully grown. Over the
Scottish island of Shetland, others
noted rock doves occupying “deep subterranean caverns, the mouths of which are
open to the sea.”Way back when humans spent more time hanging in and around
caves, nobody would have batted an eyelid at the sight of a baby pigeon, often
called a squab.In fact, the excavation of a cave in Gibraltar reveals that
Neanderthals were keen on eating pigeons before modern humans even reached
Europe. Much later, after Neanderthals had vanished and Homo sapiens took over
this same site, they too were dining out on pigeon flesh. In prehistorical
times then, it’s likely that baby pigeons, or squab, were not only often seen,
but often on the menu.
But today, with an
absence of edgy cliffs, rocky crags and dingy caves in our cities, the feral
pigeon must make do, constructing its nest in whatever out-of-the-way, covered
spots it can find, in abandoned
buildings or beneath bridges.
So it is not that
juvenile pigeon is ashamed of its appearance, stay in the nest for a very long
time: the nestling period from hatching to fledging typically lasts more than
40 days, roughly twice that of most garden birds; but that the adults keep them
away from the view, feeding their chicks with a regurgitated “crop milk” rich
in protein and fat. So when squabs finally fly the nest they are fully grown and
virtually indistinguishable from adults.With a keen eye, however, it is
possible to spot a fledged but still-juvenile pigeon.
In culinary
terminology, squab is a young domestic pigeon, typically under four weeks old,
or its meat.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
21st
Sept. 2015.
Pigeons and doves
constitute the bird ‘clade Columbidae’
that include some 310 species. In
general the terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat
interchangeably. In ornithological practice, there is a tendency for
"dove" to be used for smaller species and "pigeon" for
larger ones. Pigeons and doves are stout-bodied birds with short necks, and
have short slender bills. The species
commonly referred to just as "pigeon" is the Feral Rock Pigeon,
common in many cities.
There are so many
of them at Ramakrishna Mission at Mylapore too – they are found in many other
places. Visit any town or city, you are
most likely to see them everywhere – the common noisy urban bird.
Those grey, white, black and brown-feathered friends that sit or walk,
bobbing their heads, on pavements, walls, parapets and buildings cooing
sweetly, raining down their excrement and odd feather.But there is something
odd about pigeons. We see them old and hobbling, mature and wise, young and a
little foolish, playing a game of proverbial chicken with the oncoming traffic.
Yet we never see their babies.
Which,
given the abundance of pigeons, begs the question why? – Pigeons, pigeons everywhere and not a baby in sight –
says an interesting article in BBC of date.
Obviously they are
not born big – they are hatched from eggs and fledgling pigeons are everywhere,
though they are not easy to identify. Feral pigeons – the ones we see in our
cities – are descended from rock doves, and remain essentially the same bird.
Their tastes might be a little more cosmopolitan, but when it comes to
reproduction they still take after their wild rock dove ancestors, which are
very secretive when it comes to situating their nests. BBC writes that the rock dove Columbia liva
likes to construct its nest on the ledges on cliff faces. “In its natural and
wild state,” as stated WilliamYarrell in
A History of British Birds, the rock dove “inhabits high rocks near the
sea-coast, in the cavities of which it lives the greater part of the year.”On
the island of Orkney, in Scotland, UK, for example, 19th Century ornithologists
observed that the rock dove “is very numerous, breeding in the crevices of the
rocks, but the nests are placed at such a depth that it is impossible to reach
them.”
When squabs (!) finally
fly the nest they are fully grown. Over the
Scottish island of Shetland, others
noted rock doves occupying “deep subterranean caverns, the mouths of which are
open to the sea.”Way back when humans spent more time hanging in and around
caves, nobody would have batted an eyelid at the sight of a baby pigeon, often
called a squab.In fact, the excavation of a cave in Gibraltar reveals that
Neanderthals were keen on eating pigeons before modern humans even reached
Europe. Much later, after Neanderthals had vanished and Homo sapiens took over
this same site, they too were dining out on pigeon flesh. In prehistorical
times then, it’s likely that baby pigeons, or squab, were not only often seen,
but often on the menu.
But today, with an
absence of edgy cliffs, rocky crags and dingy caves in our cities, the feral
pigeon must make do, constructing its nest in whatever out-of-the-way, covered
spots it can find, in abandoned
buildings or beneath bridges.
So it is not that
juvenile pigeon is ashamed of its appearance, stay in the nest for a very long
time: the nestling period from hatching to fledging typically lasts more than
40 days, roughly twice that of most garden birds; but that the adults keep them
away from the view, feeding their chicks with a regurgitated “crop milk” rich
in protein and fat. So when squabs finally fly the nest they are fully grown and
virtually indistinguishable from adults.With a keen eye, however, it is
possible to spot a fledged but still-juvenile pigeon.
In culinary
terminology, squab is a young domestic pigeon, typically under four weeks old,
or its meat.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
21st
Sept. 2015.
