Alternative names: Common Wood-Pigeon, Wood Pigeon
- Columba palumbus
Identification
40-42cm (15¾-16½ in)
- Grey body
- Pink breast
- Green, white and purple neck patch
- White wing patch
- Black tipped tail
- Bright yellow iris
- Pink legs and bill
Juvenile: browner, duller, no neck patch.
Distribution
Taxonomy
Subspecies
There are 6 subspecies[1]:
- C. p. azorica:Duller with smaller neck patches.
- Eastern and central Azores
- C. p. maderensis:
- Formerly mountains of Madeira. Probably extinct
- C. p. palumbus:
- C. p. iranica:Whitish or pale yellow bill.
- Southern Transcaspia to Iran
- C. p. casiotis: Neck patch creamy buff or cinnamon, not white.
- Kazakstan to northern Afghanistan, northern Pakistan, north-western India and Nepal
Habitat
Parks, gardens, woods, and farmland.
Behaviour
Diet
The diet includes grain, crops and seeds.
Breeding
Both sexes build the platform nest from twigs in a bush or shrub, particularly in evergreens. The 2 glossy white eggs are incubated by both sexes for 17 days; the young fledge 29-35 days later. There can be up to 3 clutches. Breeding can start as early as March and continue until November.
Vocalisation
Call: ru-hoo ru ru-hoo. Listen to Common Wood Pigeon voice clip
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2021. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- British Garden Birds
- Baptista, L.F., Trail, P.W., Horblit, H.M., Boesman, P. & Garcia, E.F.J. (2018). Common Woodpigeon (Columba palumbus). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/54105 on 8 October 2018).
- Goodwin, D. (1983) Pigeons and Doves of the World. Cornell Univ. Press.
- Wikipedia contributors. (2018, September 9). Common wood pigeon. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 07:37, October 8, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Common_wood_pigeon&oldid=858820530
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Common Wood Pigeon. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 9 October 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Common_Wood_Pigeon
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1