Download to read offline
More Related Content
Rock dove - Pigeon
- 1.
- 2.
- 3. Scientific classification • Kingdom:Animalia • Phylum: Chordata • Class: Aves • Order: Columbiformes • Family: Columbidae • Genus: Columba • Species: C. livia
- 4. Adaptations and Habitat •Natural resident range in western and southern Europe, North Africa, and extending into South Asia. • in Pairs in the Breeding season • Gregarious • Habitat is natural cliffs, usually on coasts. Its domesticated form, the feral pigeon, is found in cities. • A rock pigeon's lifespan ranges from 3–5 years in the wild to 15 years in captivity, though longer-lived specimens have been reported.
- 5. Avoid being eaten!! •Rock doves form large groups, called flocks. • Associating with other rock doves • Decrease their likelihood of being taken by a predator • Many more eyes watching for predatory animals • Each individual rock dove is less likely to be targeted.
- 6. Reproduction • Male andfemale rock doves mate for life. • Mating System monogamous • Rock doves breed throughout the warm season. They lay usually two eggs in a rough nest made of sticks and debris. The eggs are incubated for 16 to 19 days and the young are fully fledged (have their feathers) and learning to fly by 30 to 37 days after hatching.
- 8. Pigeon Milk • Bothmales and females incubate the eggs, often females incubate during the day and males at night. Eggs hatch approximately 19 days after being laid. Males and females produce a substance from their crop called 'pigeon milk' or 'crop milk' which they feed to their hatchlings during the first week of life. After the first week the young are fed regurgitated seeds and other foods along with the pigeon milk.
- 9. Mode of Nutrition •Primary Diet: herbivore (granivore) • Rock doves feed in the early morning and in the mid- afternoon on the open ground. • Diet includes the following: 92% corn, 3.2% oats, 3.7% cherry, along with small amounts of knotweed, elm, poison ivy, and barley. • suck water through their beaks like straws • Female rock doves need to eat a diet somewhat higher in protein and calcium in order to have the nutritional resources to lay eggs.
- 10. Ecological Importance • Rockdoves are eaten • as a game bird by humans • used for laboratory research • research on bird navigation and behavior. • used as carrier pigeons for hundreds of years and have been very important historically.