All species › Pigeons and doves
Pigeons and doves | Columbiformes
Duifachtigen | Palomas y tórtolas
Pigeons and doves have a small head, a short bill with a soft, fleshy cere at its base, and dense, loosely attached plumage that comes away easily when seized, leaving a predator with a mouthful of feathers instead of the bird. They drink by sucking water up rather than tipping the head back to swallow, and their wings are powerful enough for fast, direct flight. The crop produces a nutritious, milk-like secretion that both parents feed to the young. The clutch usually holds one or two eggs laid on a flimsy platform of twigs, and the naked chicks stay in the nest and depend on their parents for an extended period.
Families in this order
- Doves and pigeons | Columbidae14 speciesThe breast muscles are exceptionally heavy relative to body size, which allows fast, direct flight over long distances and makes the family strong homers. The cooing call is produced with the bill closed, by forcing air past the syrinx through the windpipe rather than through an open mouth. Pairs alternate incubation on a fixed daily rhythm: the male typically sits on the clutch by day, the female by night. In courtship the partners touch bills and appear to feed one another, a gesture that cements the pair bond before the male brings material for the female to build the nest with.