Volume 45, Number 2, December 1998:
Feral Pigeons

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ABOUT THIS ISSUE
- about KSN
- about the author

IN THIS ISSUE
- introduction
- origin of feral pigeons
- basic plumages
- mate choice and plumages
- advantages of different plumages
- advantages of choosing different mates
- breeding seasons
- reproducative data
- brood reduction
- living in colonies
- commuter pigeons
- relationships with people
- reference

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Updated: March 9, 2005
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Feral Pigeons
by Richard F. Johnston

BREEDING SEASONS

Feral pigeon populations have year-long breeding seasons in most localities. Individual pairs maintain nests, lay eggs and rear young for from six to ten months each year, taking time off in or near winter. Because individuals are not of synchrony with each other, some nesting occurs in populations every month of the year, even in localities at high latitudes.

Wild rock doves have a relatively long breeding season, but it is clearly set off from a period of inactivity during which the annual molt occurs. When rock doves were first held in captivity, environmental pressures dictating a limited breeding season were to some extent relaxed. At the same time, the most vigorous birds were selected for their high reproductive output. Those that remained active for the longest periods would have been the most valuable. Consequently, captive populations gradually would have assumed a breeding season longer than that of their wild relatives. For such reasons, pigeons assumed a position of importance in early human religions, and became sacred to fertility figures such as Aphrodite and Astarte.

The yearlong season of ferals overlaps with the molt schedule and reflects both the innate capabilities of wild rock doves and the modifications wrought by human selective breeding in domestic pigeons. Relaxation of natural selection and assumption of characteristics thought to be desirable by humans is a pattern found in a number of aspects of pigeon biology (such as plumage color and pattern) as well as in other species (such as house cats) that have become feral after having been domesticated.