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Message: <blockquote data-quote="totaljohn" data-source="post: 1266048" data-attributes="member: 61629">i am aware this sounds like one of those crackpot threads by an overenthusiastic and inexperienced birder, well half right.. but today, in london on the way back from work i noticed what i considered to be a possible Columba hybrid.  bear in mind this is in an urban area where there are lots of feral pigeons and a few woodies here and there.  ihad a pretty good lookand the bird in question was noticeably larger than the other feral pigeons and showed a few key woodpigeon features but other than these was very dark and scruffy (non-uniform and 'patchy' plumage), like many of the feral rocks around.woodpigeon features:largeryellow/orange bill with small cerewoodpigeon "character" in the face (very scientific there)the patches of white plumage in both the wing coverts and on the neck exactly where you'd expect them to be on a woodpigeon.feral rock features:otherwise very dark all over with a patchy and untidy look, identical to the plumage of many of the darker feral pigeons around.there's the possibility of a melanistic woodie here but it definitely had the look of being somewhere between the two.  this won't be a popular thread i suppose but i thought it worth asking.  my main question; is there a precedent for this pairing?points i have taken into account before i considered this seriously:- feral pigeons are highly variable and the chances are, one is going to show these features now and again, even in terms of size.- melanism in a woodpigeon is possible although i cannot find a precedent for this either and the bird wasn't quite there in terms of "jizz" for want of a better word.</blockquote>

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