All species › Pigeons and doves
Pigeons and doves | Columbiformes
Duifachtigen | Palomas y tórtolas
Compactly built birds with a small head, a short neck and a slender bill whose base is soft and swollen, the nostrils lying there under a leathery cere. They drink without lifting the head, sucking the water up with a pumping action — an exception among birds. The diet is almost wholly plant matter, seed and fruit, worked through a roomy crop and a strongly muscled gizzard. The breast muscles are heavy and the wings fairly short and pointed, built for a fast, straight escape flight.
Families in this order
- Pigeons and doves | Columbidae12 speciesBoth parents produce a protein-rich crop milk and feed the young on it for the first days; that allows a long breeding season, with clutches following one another in quick succession. The nest is a loose, often see-through platter of twigs holding almost always two white eggs. The feathers sit loosely in the skin and come away in handfuls at the slightest grip, leaving an attacker with a mouthful of down. The call is a muffled cooing made with the bill shut and the throat inflated; many species also have a display flight with clapping wings and a glide on raised wings.