Rock pigeon

Voice

A rolling, moaning coo that echoes off the rock face, oo-rooh-coo, stressed on the second syllable and dying slowly away. Heard all year, most insistently from February to June. On take-off the wings crack loudly together, a sound that often draws attention before the bird itself does.

Identification

Blue-grey pigeon with two sharp black wingbars, a green and purple gloss on the neck sides, a dark tail band and a gleaming white rump that flashes in flight. The underwing is white and contrasts strongly with the dark primaries. Pure wild birds all look much alike; feral town pigeons vary from black through pied to white.

Confusion species

Stock Dove is smaller and darker, lacks the white rump and shows only short broken wingbars and a grey underwing. Woodpigeon is much larger, with a white neck patch and a white wing band. The real difficulty is feral stock: only birds with a spotless white rump, two full black bars and a white underwing count as wild.

Habitat

Steep sea cliffs, limestone crags, gorges and caves, with cereal fields, stubbles and short grazed turf within reach for feeding. Inland it substitutes ruins, church towers and old bridges. Feral birds repeat the same pattern in concrete: buildings serve as cliffs, squares and harbours as arable land.

Range and movements

Wild Rock Doves breed along the coasts of Scotland, Ireland and the Mediterranean and in the rock massifs of Spain, which still holds fairly pure populations. The Netherlands has no wild Rock Doves at all: every bird there descends from escaped racing and ornamental pigeons, gone feral in towns, ports and under viaducts.

• Resident
• Breeding (summer)
• Winter
• Passage
• dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

Where and when to look

Work a steep coastal cliff in Scotland or Iberia in May and go early, when the doves leave the roosting caves for the fields. Check every group for the white rump and white underwing, and judge harshly: a single brown or white feather already betrays feral ancestry somewhere in the line.

Conservation status

The species as a whole is abundant and unthreatened, but the pure wild form is fading through continual interbreeding with feral pigeons. Loss of small-scale arable farming near the cliffs and the sealing of old buildings reduce nest sites. In cities the problem is reversed, where nuisance and control measures drive management.