Band-tailed Pigeon Discussion

[TAWhatley]

OK .. Band-taileds are up and available for viewing and discussion. Enjoy!

Band-tailed Pigeons

Terry

[Charis]

http://www.pigeons.biz/gallery/browseimages.php?c=85

This link told me I was denied access.
The other links where great.
We do have Band-tailed Pigeons in the forested areas around Portland and when I have seen these birds it has been quite a treat. They are quite large and very allusive. I've never seen more than a dozen or so together at any one time.

[TravelerWhatley]

Try again Charis .. should be working now .. It's working for Traveler who I am logged in as right now.

Terry

[corvid]

Terry I love the info , You provided us with. I did listen to the song a couple of times, cause is so ...luring and attractive one. And the younger PJ from Charis, he started peeping, as long as i was listening he was peeping.

Thank You Terry I had a bowl. I wish Oregon would completely prohibited shooting of them, or any other bird for that matter. How, one colorful patch on your nape, does changes a life for ya...compare that with our citty PJ and I dont see the difference, just in numbers.

Nell

[John_D]

That is good reading (and listening), Terry.

I find the one egg in a clutch interesting. With a limited breeding season, I wonder what the strategy is when one considers that small songbirds may produce a couple of rounds of several eggs to take account of predation, and other familiar pigeons and doves several rounds of two eggs.

Maybe self-regulation of numbers because of habitat restrictions?

John

[Feefo]

That was really interesting, Terry, particularly the similarities and dissimilarities to our wood pigeons. I wonder what the purpose of the white neck ring is in both birds...to be recognised by others of the same kind from above when feeding?

Cynthia

[TAWhatley]

Originally Posted by John_D

I find the one egg in a clutch interesting. With a limited breeding season, I wonder what the strategy is when one considers that small songbirds may produce a couple of rounds of several eggs to take account of predation, and other familiar pigeons and doves several rounds of two eggs.

Maybe self-regulation of numbers because of habitat restrictions?

John

I found that interesting also and didn't know that little tidbit of information until I sat down to actually write the article and did a bit of reading. Here's a quote from this link http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/a.../pafa/all.html regarding this:

The band-tailed pigeon has the lowest breeding potential of any game bird in the United States [40,52,53]. Clutch size is typically 1 egg [32,33,40,46,52,53,64], but 2-egg [32,33,53,64] and 3-egg clutches have been reported. Of 219 interior and Pacific band-tailed pigeon clutches examined, 85% to 95% contained 1 egg [32,33,40,46,52,53,64]. Band-tailed pigeons typically nest once a year [40], but may complete up to 3 nest cycles per year during favorable weather conditions [32,33,46]. Of 134 radio-marked adult Pacific band-tailed pigeons, 60% initiated 2 to 3 nests during 1 breeding season, and 15% of all nesting birds produced 3 fledglings. Pacific band-tailed pigeons eliminated nesting intervals by overlapping nesting cycles (caring for 2 sets of offspring at different developmental stages) 78% of the time. This allowed for raising 3 broods in a 150-day nesting season. In western Oregon, the mean number of Pacific band-tailed pigeon nests initiated per year was 1.69/adult (n=137). Fifty-four percent initiated >2 nests/year and 10% produced 3 successful nests/year [52].

Terry

[jbangelfish]

Originally Posted by John_D

That is good reading (and listening), Terry.

I find the one egg in a clutch interesting. With a limited breeding season, I wonder what the strategy is when one considers that small songbirds may produce a couple of rounds of several eggs to take account of predation, and other familiar pigeons and doves several rounds of two eggs.

Maybe self-regulation of numbers because of habitat restrictions?

John

Several of the larger pigeons only laid one egg. It seems to me that Victoria Crown pigeons are this way and that Dodo's were also. I would guess it's more a strategy pertaining to raising one large chick is difficult enough as much as anything. Similar to penguins. Too much work or impossible to take care of two. Penguins can only balance and incubate one egg on their feet so their reason is more obvious. Their feeding challenge would make more than one nearly impossible anyway. Maybe it's something akin to that.

Bill

[TerriB]

So these birds can be found around here? Cool! Now if I could just get one to display his tail like that first photo so I'd recognize him! Now that I know a bit more about them, I'll keep an eagle eye (and a beagle ear) out for them when in the woods. Thanks for the information!

[MaryOfExeter]

Wow, Band-tailed pigeons are pretty. I wish we had some of them down here. I don't believe I've ever seen a real one before, but I've read about them several times in my bird books.
Thanks for the great info!

[j_birds]

Originally Posted by TAWhatley

OK .. Band-taileds are up and available for viewing and discussion. Enjoy! They are here: http://www.pigeons.biz/forums/f61/

Terry

Thanks Terry. I enjoyed the reading about the band tails. Its one pigeon I have never seen in the wild.

[risingstarfans]

Thank you for the wonderful article on band tailed. Some 25 years ago I lived in Big Bear, in the San Bernardino mountains in Southern California and they were quite common, but largely unnoticed by moat people because they most often nested very high in the huge Ponderos Pines in the area.

I was very fortunate to have a nesting pair above my house, about 50 feet up in one of the pines. Sooooo shy, quiet and exceptionally beautiful

[feralpigeon]

Great article and pics,Terry. I was a transit point for a baby about a year ago and was amazed at how strong their feet were. I ended up googling Band-tailed Pigeons to find that one of the mentions discussed these birds weathering very gusty winds in storms and continuing to fly regardless. Also, descriptions of the Band-tailed Pigeons having very strong feet and able to cling to branches during very strong/stormy winds. I must say, the baby's feet that I took care of for a few days were indeed much stronger than that of any feral that I have cared for.

They also answered an ancient question of Nabisho here on this forum.....Can
pigeons eat Pine Nuts? Apparently this is one of the noted items that Band-tails feed on through out the year. I still maintain that DD thinks pine
nuts are caviar, lol.

Another interesting fact regarding the Band-tailed would be: "The parasitic louse Columbicola extinctus, believed to have become extinct with the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon, was recently rediscovered on the Band-tailed Pigeon." From Wikipedia link:

http://66.218.69.11/search/cache?ei=...icp=1&.intl=us

Some more informational links:

http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/b...s/colufasc.htm

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n..._pigeon_2.html

http://www.birdsamore.com/byb/pigeon-band-tailed.htm

http://www.birdweb.org/birdweb/bird_...d=236#behavior

Here's a fun article about a man in New Jersey who found Band-tails feeding in his backyard:

http://www.capemaytimes.com/life-in-...0119pigeon.htm

And here's a link to some pics of the baby/youngster Band-tailed Pigeon that
I took care of for a few days while in transit to Wildcare:

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo...ost=good-times

An interesting aside, I noticed that the bird was shaking its' head from side to side.....as I investigated further, I found that when the TV was muted, the bird had no "symptoms" at all but when the sound for the TV was back on again, the head shaking would resume. It seemed as though it was a defensive mechanism that when frightened the baby would shake its' head as though to say....
"I'm unfit prey"....that's all I could figure.

fp





Some more links for Band-tailed Pigeons are:

[TAWhatley]

Thanks so much for the links and photos of the baby you had, FP! I have another Band-tailed here right now that came in from animal control on Christmas Eve. This one is young but not a baby and is very, very frightened and hyper. Hopefully my rehabber friend will be available to take over care of this one over the weekend.

They are very sturdy birds. Can't say that I noticed the stronger feet, but I have no doubt that is true as they are much stonger and larger birds than our beloved ferals.

Terry

[LUCKYT]

I say them my first time in the Sishlaw Nat. forest, near Lincoln city ore. I thought they were commons! until my hiking partner corrected me!