pigeon, any of several hundred species of birds constituting the family Columbidae (order Columbiformes). Smaller forms are usually called doves, larger forms pigeons. An exception is the white domestic pigeon, the symbol known as the “dove of peace.”
Pigeons occur worldwide except in the coldest regions and the most remote islands. About 250 species are known; two-thirds of them occur in tropical Southeast Asia, Australia, and the islands of the western Pacific, but the family also has many members in Africa and South America and a few in temperate Eurasia and North America. All members of the family suck liquids, rather than sip and swallow as do other birds, and all pigeon parents feed their young “pigeon’s milk,” the sloughed-off lining of the crop, the production of which is stimulated by the hormone prolactin. The nestling obtains this “milk” by poking its bill down the parent’s throat.
Pigeons are gentle, plump, small-billed birds with a skin saddle (cere) between the bill and forehead. All pigeons strut about with a characteristic bobbing of the head. Because of their long wings and powerful flight muscles, they are strong, swift fliers. Pigeons are monogamous; i.e., they mate for life, and the survivor accepts a new mate only slowly. The female lays two glossy white eggs in a flimsy nest that barely holds them. The female generally incubates the eggs by night, the male by day. The incubation period is 14 to 19 days, but the young are cared for in the nest for another 12 to 18 days.
Homing pigeons (Colomba livia) possess a group of neurons that are used to help the birds process changes in the direction, intensity, and polarity of magnetic fields around them. The sensitivity of the pigeons to these physical properties allows them to determine their directional heading and altitude by using Earth’s magnetic field. The identity of the physical structure within the pigeon’s body that collects this magnetic field information and sends it to the brain remains unknown, but some scientists suspect that it may lie within the inner ear.
The numerous genera of pigeons may be classified into subfamilies as follows:
The Columbinae, the typical, or true, pigeons, consists of about 175 species in about 30 genera. These often gregarious seed and fruit eaters are found worldwide in temperate and tropical regions. Some are ground feeders, others feed partly or wholly in trees. They are generally coloured soft gray and brown to black, sometimes with iridescent patches on the plumage. The cosmopolitan genus Columba—including the Old World wood pigeons and the New World band-tailed pigeons—is classified in this group, along with the Streptopelia species, the Old World turtledoves and ringdoves. To this genus also belong the street pigeons so common in urban areas. These are composed of a bewildering array of crossbreeds of domesticated strains, all of them ultimately traceable to the Old World rock dove (Columba livia). The rock dove is typically dull in colour—gray and white rump and two large black wing bars; this Eurasian species nests above 5,000 feet (1,525 metres) in Asia. It has been domesticated and selectively bred since 3000 BCE with the production of numerous colour variants and about 200 named strains—show pigeons, racing pigeons, and large edible types. Among such strains, pouter pigeons have a large, inflatable gullet; carrier pigeons have a long bill; runts, a massive bill and body; barbs, a short bill. Fantails may have 42 tail feathers; owl pigeons have diverging throat feathers; frillbacks, the feathers reversed; jacobins, hoodlike neck feathers. Tumblers tumble backward in flight.
The many other Old World genera in the subfamily Columbinae include the chicken-sized pheasant pigeon (Otidiphaps nobilis) of New Guinea. In the New World the white-winged doves and the mourning dove (Zenaida) are popular game birds; Central and South America support the terrestrial ground doves (Metriopelia) and quail doves (Geotrygon). The New World passenger pigeon is extinct.
The Treroninae, or the fruit pigeons, consists of about 115 species in about 10 genera, found primarily in Africa, southern Asia, Australia, and the Pacific islands. These fruit-eating birds are soft-billed, short-legged, and arboreal in habit. Their plumage is usually greenish, often with yellow, red, or other brightly coloured markings. The group includes the heavyset imperial pigeons (Ducula); the small and extremely colourful fruit doves (Ptilinopus); the blue pigeons (Alectroenas), dark blue in colour with red wattles; and the usually crimson-legged green pigeons (Treron).
The Gourinae, or crowned pigeons, consists solely of three species (genus Goura), found in New Guinea. Blue-gray birds with fanlike head crests, they are the largest of all pigeons—nearly the size of a turkey.
The Didunculinae consists of a single species, the tooth-billed pigeon (Didunculus strigirostris), which is native to Samoa. This fruit-eating, terrestrial pigeon has adopted arboreal ways in response to near extermination by introduced predators. Unlike most pigeons, it uses its feet to hold down its food while pecking off pieces.
