Rock Dove

The rock pigeon, or rock dove, is the wild form of the familiar city pigeon. Wild birds are uniformly pale grey with two black bars on each wing, and males and females look much alike. The adult is 30 to 35cm long with a wingspan of 62 to 68cm, weighing 238 to 380g. Domestic pigeons, of about 1,000 breeds, descend from it, and escaped domestic birds are the origin of feral pigeons worldwide (Wikipedia, general species account).

It uses open and semi-open habitats where it can forage on the ground, and in the wild it roosts and breeds on cliffs and rock ledges. It originated in southern Europe, North Africa and western Asia. Eggs can be laid up to six times a year, and it may have been domesticated as long as 5,000 years ago. Feral birds vary widely in colour and pattern.