Common wood pigeon - Columba palumbus

Common Name :	Common wood pigeon.
Binomial Name :	Columba palumbus
Family :	Columbidae
Photo Taken :	Ireland

Common wood pigeon is a resident bird from the Europe (but can found as a migrant in Asia). This bird is widely seen around the gardens and parks of Ireland and United kingdom. In Ireland this bird is one of the top 20 widespread garden birds. Binomial name of the bird is Columba palumbus and it belongs to the bird family Columbidae (dove and pigeon family).

Common wood pigeon (Columba palumbus) is a slightly larger sized pigeon bird. The upper part of the bird is bluish ash and the underside is brownish ash in color. The bird has a white patch at wings and black patch at tails. It also has a noticeable white patch at the back side of neck. The bird also has glaze of purple and green around the neck. Color of beak is yellow but pinkish at base. Color of feet are also pinkish.

Common wood pigeon (Columba palumbus) mostly seen around the gardens, hillside, etc place (but mainly in woodland). They live near the water as they often need to drink water and take bathe. They have a variety of diet depending upon the season. For example during summer they live on grains where as during winter or spring they prefer to have fruits and seeds. This bird also take some larvae and small worms as a meal. Being feeding on agricultural crops this bird sometimes considered as an agricultural pest.

During breeding season a female Common wood pigeon (Columba palumbus) lays two eggs in nest. The nest is a simple one made by gathering sticks. Both male and female take care of the incubation. The bird's nest is in a threat as the tree doesn't have any leaf on that. Eggs take more than two weeks to hatch and then another month before flying.

This bird is seen foraging as a group or alone. It is a very common scene around a garden or lawn where a group of Wood pigeons are foraging over the grasses by walking. During idle time they found perching on branch of a tree.

Photos of Common wood pigeon (Columba palumbus) were taken from Ireland during March 2016.


This article has written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog http://icbird.blogspot.com/