why do you never see baby pigeons???

Answer 1

We get this question periodically. Here's the answer:

Pigeons are altricial birds, i.e., they stay in the nest until they can fly. Pigeon young are hatched at 18 days. They stay in the nest till they are about 30-35 days old. When they fly for the first time, you can often see them in flocks among the adults if you know what to look for. Young pigeons have little if any iridescence on the neck. They still often squeal when they chase their parents or other adult trying to con them into feeding them. Their feathers are a bit duller than the adults and their tail feathers often have a slight point to them - where the down was attached.

Pigeon young almost double their weight each day in the nest and pigeon parents feed them well. In fact, for about the first ten days, they actually feed them a "crop milk". It's not really milk as we think of in mammals -- it looks more like a cottage cheese they produce - but it is a high energy food and the youngsters (squeakers) grow fast and well on it. About 7-10 days into the nest period after hatch, the adults begin to add grain, seeds, whatever, to the food that they are giving the youngsters.

There are a lot of young pigeons out there at certain times of year and part of the fun of looking at a flock is to recognize which are young and which are adults.

If you want to find out more, you might want to also check a few sites like:

http://www.angelfire.com/ga3/pigeongenetics

http://www.pigeon.org

BTW - Here's a couple of pics of young pigeons in the nest. The first is one of pair of birds about 10 days old and the second is of one about 21 days old (about a week and a half before it would fledge)
http://www.fbipigeons.com/baby_pigeon.htm

Answer 2

Pigeons are excellent parents and will continue feeding their youngsters well after they fledge. Once a baby comes out of the nest it is hardly distinguishable from its parents, thus the myth of "you never see a baby pigeon".

Answer 3

their diet does not permit many of them to flourish. I feed the pigeons by my home bread saturated in milk, which I read is good for pigeons.

Answer 4

This is because pigeons build their nests in hard to see locations, often under building ledges.

Answer 5

There are young pigeons every where maybe you are not looking hard enough!

Answer 6

ive seen loads...mostly by my cat bringing them in through the cat flaps but oh well!!!
pigeons are cool, well country pigeons are - pigeons from the cities arent particularly nice they fly around you and try to crap on you...or is that seagulls??? oh well i make it both now...lets call them seapigeons!!!

Answer 7

I've seen loads of them, we have a dove pigeon nest on our security light, they nest there every year, they're quite cute.

Answer 8

Open your eyes and you may. I see them. It is just that by the time they can fly they already look a lot like their parents.

Answer 9

They build their nests either high up in trees, where people can't get to them, or they build them under building overhangs.

Answer 10

i bet the older ones that go scavving round all the time are to blame