Profile
In flight
Pigeons & Doves
Rock Dove
Columba livia
- common
- 80 km/h
- Starter
- Least Concern
The OG messenger pigeon. 5,000 years of postal service experience and counting.
- Population
- ~140 million globally including feral populations (BirdLife, current assessment), of which ~11.4% (~16 million) are in the US and Canada; native wild population size unknown and cannot be reliably separated from feral numbers per BirdLife's own assessment notes.
- Habitat
- Natural populations nest on rock ledges, sea cliffs, and cave faces (including canyons); feral/urban populations are commensal with humans, common on buildings, bridges, highway/railroad overpasses, farms, and city parks. Occupies elevations from sea level up to ~4,500 m; avoids dense vegetation.
- Fun fact
- The Rock Dove is the wild ancestor of the domestic and feral pigeon, and its powerful homing ability made it the basis for messenger/homing pigeons used for millennia, including in wartime communications.
- Range
- Native to southern Europe, North Africa, and Western/Central-South Asia (fossil/skeletal evidence in Israel suggests presence for at least 300,000 years); introduced worldwide (e.g., North America via Europe in the early 1600s) and now established as feral pigeons on every inhabited continent, with an estimated extent of occurrence of ~64,600,000 km² (BirdLife). The "220+ countries and territories" figure is a plausible but not independently source-traced approximation.
- Diet
- Omnivorous but predominantly granivorous/frugivorous — seeds, grains, and fruit, with occasional small invertebrates; feral urban birds also scavenge discarded human food, bread, and birdseed.
- Size
- 0.325 m
- Wingspan
- 0.65 m
- Lifespan
- 6 years
