Rock Pigeon

The rock pigeon, also called the rock dove, is the wild ancestor of the domestic and feral pigeons found in cities around the world, native originally to rocky cliffs and coastlines of Europe, North Africa and western Asia. It has a stocky body, small head and typically blue-grey plumage with two dark bars on the wings and an iridescent green-and-purple sheen on the neck, though feral urban populations show far greater variation in color due to centuries of interbreeding with domesticated forms. Rock pigeons naturally nest on cliff ledges, a habit that made building ledges and window sills easy substitutes once the species began thriving alongside people, and they feed mainly on seeds and grain, supplemented by human food scraps in urban settings. Domesticated for thousands of years for food, message-carrying and racing, the rock pigeon is now one of the most numerous and widely distributed birds on Earth in its feral form.