Things you need to know about WOOD PIGEONS!
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Published 2021-01-28
Adult birds are slate grey with several distinctive markings. They have yellow and white beaks with a blue and white patch on either side of their necks. They also have a faded pink chest, a white bar on each of their wings and a black band around the base of their tails. Until they are around 16 weeks old, young birds lack the neck markings and have a duller beak.
Wood pigeons breed all year round and make a nest that is a small platform of twigs. These are usually in the crowns of trees but can also be on ledges of buildings and sometimes even on the ground. Each female will only lay 2 eggs at a time. These are white and around 4 cm long and 3cm wide. The eggs take 17 days to hatch and when they do the chick, which are known as squabs will be fed a special milk like liquid by the parents. The parents create this in a small pouch in their throats known as a crop and as such it is known as crop milk. As the squabs grow the crop milk is gradually replaced by whole seeds, nuts and vegetation and after 30 to 34 days they are ready to leave the nest. Once they do leave they are still fed by their parents for a few more weeks before they become fully independent.
Wood pigeons are almost completely vegetarian and are often seen as a pests by farmers as they feed heavily on beans, wheat and corn. Each pigeon can peck more than 70 times a minute and fill their crops each day with food to digest over night. These crops can extend to be massive and can hold more than 200 beans, or up to 1000 grains of wheat.
They are also one of the only species of birds that can drink with their heads held down. Most birds have to lift their heads in order to swallow but wood pigeons can make a suction.
There are currently more than 5.4million pairs of wood pigeons in the UK and their numbers seem to be rising. The birds that are here do not migrate and rarely travel far from where they hatched but in northern Europe this is not the case. Each winter the birds that are there migrate south to spend the winter around the Mediterranean before heading back north for the spring. Although they are capable of these massive migrations they do not have the same inbuilt homing instinct of feral pigeons.
The normal life expectancy for a wood pigeon is around 4 years but one wild bird that was ringed as an adult, was then found dead 16 years later. Its completely possible that this birds was 1 or more years old when it was ringed but for now, we can say that wood pigeons do have the ability to live to at least 16 years and 16 weeks of age.
#britishwildlife #pigeon #nature
All Comments (21)
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Whilst walking my dogs on an airfield I found a young pigeon alone and far from any cover. I took it home fed it and built a temporary enclosure so it could recover. After a few weeks it became obvious that it had a problem and it's flight feathers never grew. I had him for the next 21 years, first living outside in his enclosure but as he aged, he lived indoors. He loved our company and would welcome us and respond to us when we called his name by doing a typical pigeon coo and bowing motion. He had a good life despite his disability and everyone who knew us, knew him too.
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For me, wood pigeons are comedic. They have this very cautious curiosity. Where the feral pigeons will swarm to fees, you'll find a hesitant wood pigeon or two on the periphery. They cock their heads and assess the safety before landing to feed and alight as soon as they're spooked. But keep feeding them regularly and sit still and they get more accustomed to people. They'll never land on you like the feral descendants of homing pigeons, but they'll learn that it's safe to feed with you around. They also fight and have some kind of pecking order too. The feral pigeon will feed in groups but the wood pigeon is much more territorial often having hilariously clumsy fights with one another.
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There are 2 wood pidgeons that have been coming to my garden and sitting on the fence for over 20 years I'm 33 years old and they have been there my whole life as far back as I can remember, one day one of them them turned up by itself and looked really sad and wasn't acting how it normally would(there was a big storm so I'm guessing it got seperated somehow because of it), it sit on my fence and on the roof opposite for 4 days waiting and then the partner appeared I literally saw the partner arrive and they both kind of cuddled each other and rubbing beaks and making their hooting noise. They always work as a pair to eat the food I leave out for other birds, they will first sit on opposite roofs and scan the area for cats for about 10 mins (there's alot of cats in my estate) then they fly down to my fence, and one will stay on the fence looking around while the other knocks down the seeds out of the feeder(they are too big to land on it to eat) then goes up to the fence to look out while the other eats the dropped seeds and they take turns doing this, they come everyday at literally exactly the same time for 20+years they are really old now you see the age on their faces, beaks and legs/feet like two little OAPs lol.......
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I actually have a 16 year old wood pigeon! He was found injured in the middle of a busy road at night, in the rain, missing a foot with an injury to a wing. He's been a pet ever since (seeing as he can't fly). I have no idea how old he was when I picked him up, but he wasn't that young (no down for sure).
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I have a wood pigeon who visits my garden every day. I call him Norman. This evening there were 2 more with him. He and one other were establishing the pecking order at the food table! A sort of Pigeon hierarchy. Turns out my Norman is quite submissive as he allowed the other one to get first pickings. I told him not to worry as would put out extra for him once the other bossy one had gone lol. 😂❤ I love my Normondo
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One thing you omitted was a red ring around the beak close to the head. They are also easy to tame as I had one that became a ‘besty’ who would fly to hand daily and we would hang out together. Sadly, last year he died after seven years of him coming every day without fail. Never underestimate the power of sunflower seeds!! ;)) I also believe it is almost impossible to sex, although behaviour is a give away when it comes to courting! They are far more intelligent than we give them credit for, and they have a very soft ‘coo’ alarm call that is barely audible. I would have him on my hand and he would spy a distant buzzard or kids helium party balloon from miles away, stand to attention and quietly and persistently coo until they disappeared. I have quite a few vids, including the alarm call that are on my facebook feed, unfortunately not categorised so are a pain to find. Lovely birds and great you have given them a space here! Thank you! ;))
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One thing worth adding is they have an incredible propensity to become very tame with us humans, if fed they will return regularly and even demand feeding daily, and quickly become very tame to the point of eating out of an open hand. These beautiful and gentle creatures are a joy to get to know individually in your own garden.
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Love them...I've got a semi tame woodpigeon (Mr Woodrow) who likes to venture into the house and wander around
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I'm so glad I found your channel. I love my wood pigeons, they bring me so much peace.
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this is funny - a wood pigeon walked over today, hopped up on my shoe, and just sat on it
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Hi from Finland and thanks for this video. My garden wood pigeons migrate around the end of September and return during the last weeks of March. Woodies are my favourite birds and although they seem to be a bit clumsy they are actually very clever. I'm glad my neighbours don't mind me feeding a whole flock of wood pigeons :D
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For years a Wood pigeon came to the same part of my garden, at the same time every evening in the summer. It ate a bowl of peanuts and drank from it's bowl of water, a nightly ritual.
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We had wood pigeons nesting in a syringa (lilac) tree in the garden a couple of years ago. I could see the squabs in their nest from my kitchen window. It was a lovely sight. I live just outside Manchester in the UK.
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We rescued a woodie squab. He'd been chucked out of the nest by mags. He became very tame and lived with us for several years. We named him Percy. He eventually went feral after 3 or 4 years and we saw less of him. He hooked up with a hen and they nested for several spring and summers in a Willow in our paddock. He must have been around for 8 or so years. He could distinguish between individual humans and was a smart little guy. Unfortunately, I think a badger got him, I found some remains near the Sett. Like me now, old and slow! Thanks and blessings.
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I love pigeons too, wood pigeons, roxk doves. A former girlfriend loved them, taught me about them. I miss her everyday. Everyday I put several bowls of clean water out & seeds in a feeder. I love to watch the eat & drink & bathe with the numerous sparrows
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Hi! We have woodpigeons too. Individually, very thoughtful and lovable although they are the most pugnacious of birds in the garden, going through periods of attacking one another relentlessly and bullying all the other birds, squirrels and anything in their sights! Beautiful yet bad tempered. I treasure their quiet moments of contemplation. Their signature call has caused us to call them 'Booboo birds ' as it sounds exactly as if they're saying 'My name is Booboo!' Their pugilative actions also earnt them the epithets of Tweedledee and Tweedledum!
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I rescued a fledgling at around 3 or 4 weeks old and I put a pink rung on her leg and released her af 7 weeks. I found her again and rescued her again 14 years later in an allyway and he had a broken wing. Sadly it couldn't be fixed and so she went to live in a rescue in an outdoor aviary with other disabled pigeons and she lived another 3 years after that and sadly died from complications from an eye infection. So she was 17 years and roughly 7 months when she died.
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Wood pigeons are so lovely! They've got pretty colours, they make nice sounds, I like the way they walk with their little pink feet and they're funny! I love watching them in the autumn because they'll stomp around the garden eating acorns- they just swallow them whole and sometimes almost choke themselves haha
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I love all birds and wood pigeons are no exception. I have about 5 of them nesting in my garden. they don't bother the little birds at all. I love to hear them.
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Thank you, I didn't know a lot of that-especially about how much they can hold in their crops, and how they drink! We have a friendly one that comes to ask for suet pellets, they're lovely birds.
