Rock dove
Columba livia
The ancestor of the pigeons waiting for food in the square is the rock dove. It still lives wild on steep cliffs.
| Size | 29–37 cm |
|---|---|
| Wingspan | 62–72 cm |
| Weight | 240–380 g |
| Diet | Seeds, grain, bread |
| Eggs | 2 |
| Where to see it | Cities, cliffs, villages; all year |
The wild rock dove is bluish gray. It has green-purple shimmering feathers on its neck and two black bars on its wings. City pigeons come from ancestors that were domesticated for centuries, so they can be any color. White, brown, spotted.
They are amazing at finding their way. They can find their home from hundreds of kilometers away. They are thought to use the sun, the earth's magnetic field and places they see on the way. It's no accident they carried letters for centuries.
Like collared doves, they feed their chicks crop milk. Both the mother and the father can do it.
Also watch how they drink. Most birds take water into their beak and tip their head back to swallow. A pigeon uses its beak like a straw and drinks without lifting its head.
To draw it in DrawBird
Follow the sparrow lesson, but make the head smaller and the body plumper. Make the body blue-gray, add a green-purple shimmer on the neck and two dark lines on the wing.
Drawing lesson: How to draw a sparrow →
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