ONE: Wood pigeons are the most numerous large bird in Britain with an estimated 5 million breeding pairs.
TWO: While the average age of a wood pigeon is 3 years, the majority of young birds die within their first 12 months and the record age for a ringed wild bird is over 16.
THREE: Baby pigeons are called squabs.
FOUR: Squabs are fed by both parents on a regurgitated liquid known as crop or pigeon milk.
FIVE: A female wood pigeon never lays more than two eggs in a clutch
SIX: A wood pigeon’s crop can hold as many as 150 acorns, 1,000 grains of wheat or 200 beans.
SEVEN: It takes a young wood pigeon 16 weeks to acquire its distinctive white neck ring.
EIGHT: A male pigeon will incubate the eggs in the morning, until around mid-afternoon when the female will take over .
NINE: The total weight of all the feathers on a wood pigeon is greater than the weight of its entire skeleton.
TEN: A wood pigeon’s eye is a bright yellow.
AND ONE FOR LUCK: In a Japanese laboratory in 1995, wood pigeons were trained to discriminate between paintings by Picasso and by Monet.
Header and footer photos by DKG
Even more about wood pigeons here:
WOOD PIGEON
11. A Wood Pigeon’s call says: “My TOE hurts, mummy, my TOE hurts, mummy, my TOE hurts, mummy, my”. Listen – he always does the extra “my” at the end.
Tomorrow I will go to the park and listen to the wood pigeons complaining about their toes.