All About The Different Types Of Pigeons
There are several hundred known types of pigeons in the world, around three hundred in fact. Many of these types of pigeons look either like the pigeon we see on our city streets, the feral "Rock" pigeon, or like the white doves we sometime see in the wild but more likely in magic shows or on greeting cards.
Pigeons Or Doves? - Whether one is talking about types of pigeons or types of doves, one is really taking about much the same thing, as the two terms are used interchangeably. All one can really say is that of the roughly 300 species in the order Columbiformes, (called columbids), some species are called pigeons and some are called doves. One species in this group, now extinct, is the passenger pigeon, another, also extinct, is the dodo. If you insist on making a comparison between doves and pigeons, it is simply that the birds we call doves are generally smaller than those we call pigeons, but that's about all one can say.
A Long Life Span - While the mortality rate of the feral Rock pigeon we see on the city streets may be somewhat high due to automobiles, although pigeons are really quite adept at dodging them, it's quite possible that a pigeon you see today might be the same one you saw 12 or 15 years ago, as that is the typical life span of most types of pigeons, and some of the birds get to be twice that age.
Most types of pigeons, especially the feral types we most often see, mate for life. When a pigeon lays its eggs, it usually lays only two, although this can vary at times. The eggs are referred to as a clutch. Pigeons are good breeders, and a female can lay up to 8 clutches of eggs in a year's time.
While we sometimes consider pigeons a nuisance due to their habit of freely pooping on sidewalks, windows, and sometimes people, they are a very beneficial bird, living on insects and spiders in the wild, but will also eat leaves and shoots as well as berries.
The Famous Homing (And Racing) Pigeon - One of the most famous types of pigeons is the homing pigeon, also called the messenger pigeon. These birds have gained a reputation in battle due to their ability to carry messages from distant locations back to their home base, including sending messages over the English Channel on D-Day. Homing pigeons have been used for this purpose for centuries, right up through World War II. They not only can travel great distances, often flying up to 80 miles in a single day, but due to their ability to fly at speeds approaching 80 miles an hour they are also widely bred and used for the sport of pigeon racing.
Pigeons Are Very Smart Birds - During many occasions including weddings, religious ceremonies, sporting events, and other notable events, hundreds of pigeons are often released. If one wonders where they go, the answer is back to their home base or lofts. Few if any ever to get lost. Pigeons are not only good at finding their way home, but they are flat out among the most intelligent of all the members of the bird kingdom, and smarter than many other members of the animal kingdom for that matter. They can distinguish not only between people, but between photographs of people, they can distinguish between artists (painters) based on the hues and colors a given painter typically uses, and have the ability to remember a large number of different images for a very long time. And you thought all this time they just walked the streets aimlessly.