Pigeon Watching

Early this month I read A Pocket Guide to Pigeon Watching, written and illustrated by Rosemary Mosco.. Along with interesting information about Pigeon natural history and behavior is also information about various plumages and patterns we might see in the Rock Pigeons that share our urban spaces. Many of these variations have arisen from their long history as domestic birds, bred for varied and sometimes unusual traits. I was intrigued, and decided to take up her challenge to see if I could "spot them all." This is the basically the Pikachu-like birding challenge that birders take on when we list and try to "see all the birds," applied to a bird that tends to get little attention.

For my Pigeon watching foray, I headed to the northmost fishing pond at Tingley. Though I see them flocks of Rock Pigeons there all the time, it was different to be actually focusing my attention on them. I found it as enjoyable to watch their varied behaviors as any other bird. I was surprised to see how many of the plumage variations discussed in the book at I was able to see in one visit. 

Base Colors 

Blue The most common Rock Pigeon we will see looks much like the wild Rock Pigeons that once inhabited rocky cliffs in Africa, Europe, and Asia. They were well represented in the flock at Tingley  The base color is blue, with blue-gray wings, and a gray-black band. 

Brown In addition to the basic blue, the other two base colors Mosco describes are Ash-Red and Brown. Brown is the rarest body color. Mosco writes "If you see a brown pigeon, consider yourself blessed by the pigeon gods." I guess I am blessed, because I found a fine example of a gray-brown pigeon with chocolate markings. 

Ash-Red  I did not find the Ash-Red variation this month, unless I count the two that I spotted on a Netflix program filmed in Boston. I believe I have seen them before. The Ash-Red coloration is genetically dominant to the Blue base color, yet there are far fewer Ash-Red than Blue. This is something I don't quite understand, but I can't say I have a solid understanding of genetics.

 Plumage Variation: Spread

Another genetic variation is called spread. With spread color plumage, the bird is covered in one color, whether ash-red, blue, or brown (The three base colors.) On this visit, I  encountered one example: A spread blue. 

Plumage Variation: Dilute

A dilute pigeon looks like a regular pigeon with washed-out colors and patterns. I'm fairly certain the pigeon below is a dilute blue. The head looks lighter than other blues I photographed,

Plumage Variation: Piebald

Many of the pigeons I saw fit this variation, with splotches of white color erasing patches of their basic body color. The genetics of this plumage variation are complicated and arise from many possible mutations. 

 

 Wing-Pattern Variations: Bar, Barless, Checkered, T-Square

The barred wing-pattern is the most common and the most like the original wild Rock Pigeon wing pattern. I've shown several examples of this. 

Barless

A barless wing is completely plain, with no bards or checks. I thought I'd found an example in this photo below, but I'm not completely sure: The bars were just hidden in this resting position.  I'm posting anyway, because I think he's beautiful. Male pigeons are slightly larger than females, and tend to puff out their crops more. I thought this one was male.

Checkered Wing Pattern

A checkered wing is covered wtih distinct dark speckles. I saw several examples of this, and a lot of variation in how much speckling there was. Below are examples of a speckled blue and a speckled brown. (Though the brown one looks a little mixed, in that the head is blue-gray. I thought she looked tie-died.)

T-Check Pattern

A T-check wing is heavily marked with dark pigment, with small T-shaped lighter areas at the tip of the feathers. This one was completely new to me, and I thought that I hadn't found one, until I studied this photo more more closely. 

 

Then when I further studied this dilute blue that I originally thought was bandless, I discovered this beauty also sporting a t-check pattern.

For reasons not well-understood, pigeons with either a T-check or checkered pattern do better in urban environments than those with a bar pattern. There were quite a few with checks, not so many with T-checks, at Tingley on this visit. 

Calico??! Some of the Pigeons I saw didn't fit neatly into any of the categories described in Mosco's book, which doesn't purport to be a complete listing of the myriad plumage possibilities. A couple of birds sported a patchwork of grey, white and red, along with piebald and checkered markings.The term  that came to mind for me was "Calico." 

 

Still Seeking:

Recessive Red: This is a darker, all-red Pigeon that comes from a single recessive gene. Because it requires alleles of the red gene to express itself, it might be considered a rarity among pigeons. 

Recessive White: Unlike the Recessive Red, you are much more likely to see a Recessive White from time to time. This is because pigeons are still bred for this trait, for release at events like weddings. (Don't do it!) We did in fact have a white pigeon flyover early this month during our weekly bird survey at the Nature Center. Many of the white pigeons that we see were likely released from an event like this. Some, however, may be feral pigeons that happen to carry two alleles for the recessive white plumage. 

Other Odd Traits to Look For

Some traits from purebred show pigeons (of which there is quite a variety) can pop up in feral populations from time to time. These include a head crest, feathered feet, larger eye rings, multi-hued toenails, and fancy eye colors. I haven't seen any of these, but I'll keep looking. You keep your eyes out too, and maybe you'll be lucky enough to see this evidence of the feral pigeon's showbird past. 

(Apologies for my hastily sketched imitations of Mosco's fine cartoon drawings) 

Rosemary Mosco's book reads from a standpoint of using feral Pigeon observation as a jumping-off point for learning about birds. Having enjoyed my closer observations of pigeons this month, I can see how this could be. It is often recommended to begin the bird-learning journey by observing the most familiar and readily observable birds. For a person living in a large city, or near an urban center, the feral Rock Pigeon may well be a good candidate.