Wild Pigeons color

[Grim]

There were never any wild pigeons where I used to live. Now where I live I see several and have noticed their colors. To me they seem very dark in color like smokey gray, almost as if there dirty. You look at homing pigeons who are somewhat similar in colors and size and you notice there much more brightly colored around their neck area and seems much cleaner. Are the feral pigeons this color due to genetics or is it more to their poorer nutrition, and their environment?

[Fever]

Do you mean like a solid, dark grey all over? I've been trying to figure that out, too. A lot of the wild pigeons around my house are dark grey, some almost black. I wonder if they can be melanistic, like cats and squirrels (all the 'grey' squirrels in my neighbourhood are pitch black, too).



Here's my edit - I did a quick search on dark or melanistic pigeons, and what I learned was that most animals have the potential to become dark or black. In urban pigeons, 'industrial melanism' might occur when darker feathers help the bird to blend in to a sooty environment. The dark birds will have a slight advantage over other colours, and by the process of natural selection, it will start to prevail.

Another theory I found is that dark birds are less susceptable to parasites like lice, because their feather are tougher.

Sorry if this is more information than needed, I'm a biology nerd.

[John_D]

They certainly come in a variety of shades. A lot of town pigeons actually do just get grimy from dust, soot and general pollution, and cannot always find much clean water to bathe in.

We have one who had what we though were the most interesting gray, kinda darker than pearly gray, feathers. However, after we had her a while, she was restored to her all white plumage. We believe it was just grime from roosting or nesting near chimney stacks!

John

[Grim]

No those are interesting points/theories. They do seem more of a dark or sooty blue/grey. The homing/domestics have the lighter blue hue to them. Especially when comparing blue bars. The darker colors would definitely blend in better under bridges and darker crevices.

Also John has a good point about the water to, a lot bathe in puddles near road ways. I guess it can be genetic and environmental.

[Fever]

Originally Posted by John_D

We have one who had what we though were the most interesting gray, kinda darker than pearly gray, feathers. However, after we had her a while, she was restored to her all white plumage. We believe it was just grime from roosting or nesting near chimney stacks!

That's funny, I've been getting a visit from a kind of ugly-whitish pigeon, and I can't figure out if she's dirty or just a very strange colour. She has brown laced through her feathers which seems to mean that she's young, since all the baby pigeons I've watched have had them. But her main colour is just ridiculous, all smears and blotches of different shades of grey and white. She doesn't have any normal pigeon markings, like a darker neck or even faded barred wings. And the dark spots don't look like patches, like other pied birds I've seen, but in some way, they don't look unnatural. It's a mystery.

She's very flighty, so I haven't been able to get a picture. She visits a lot, but only during the day. She goes back home (wherever that is) in the day.

[mr squeaks]

Sure would be nice if you could get a picture of your "odd" colored pij, Fever!

Pigeon colors have always fascinated me and I love the many differences in the Pieds.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Project PigeonWatch, simplified the morphs (colors) of the pigeons for people participating in the Project for them. They used terms such as: Spreads, Checkers, Pieds and Blue-Bars, along with a few others.

(One thing I always felt was interesting, is the color term "Blue" used, not only in pigeons but in cats. To me, I see GRAY!)

Some of our members have pigeons with beautiful and unusual coloring.

Shi

[Fever]

She decided to stop by today.



This black one got in the way a bit:



I tried to take another one a little closer when the black one got out of the way, but the two took off together. Maybe they're in love. I'd love to give that poor funny-coloured thing a bath and see if she pretty's up any.

[alvin]

Now, what you got there is a Blue Bar, a Dark Checker, and a 'What-the-heck-is-that!?' .

[Matt D.]

Just so you know the darkingness is caused by the strain of birds that first were lost in that area. In San Francisco the birds there are smaller and brighter so my guess is a Belgium variety like a van der maelon of sorts. In LA the birds there are dark and small so I would say that they must have came from a strain such as the one I race bekaurts. But Washington D.C. , Las Vagus, And Chicago they birds actually vary depending on were about you are in the city. Now all the cities I just described were once many years ago the hot spots of pigeon racing so you must realize that these birds are not abandoned they were lost and most pigeon people do not abandon there birds they will have them sold when they die or given to a family member or culled.

[Lovebirds]

Originally Posted by Fever

She decided to stop by today.



This black one got in the way a bit:



I tried to take another one a little closer when the black one got out of the way, but the two took off together. Maybe they're in love. I'd love to give that poor funny-coloured thing a bath and see if she pretty's up any.

That's a Red Checker..............that looks like it's molting........will be a very pretty bird when it's finished.

[Fever]

Originally Posted by Lovebirds

That's a Red Checker..............that looks like it's molting........will be a very pretty bird when it's finished.

That would be pretty. I occasionally have a red bar who comes by as well, and it's a beautiful pigeon. Now that I'm getting used to watching them, I'm starting to recognize all the individual traits and markings and can tell them apart even when the look very similar. It helps that mine have some random genes mixed in, like white flight feathers, and splashes of white on the head from a pied pigeon that stayed for a while.

I absolutely love the black dark checker ones. I have two babies out there that are pure ink. They're walking around now, and have retreated to the covered part of the balcony, so they're almost impossible to see.