Why do pigeons bob their heads when they walk?

Answer 1

Head bobbing has been hypothesized to be related to vision.
When a bird's head is still, the images can form on the retina without the blur of motion.

Now you're thinking: but the head is not still, it's bobbing!
However, this is a visual effect, and in reality the head is keeping immobile, while the body moves. Head bobbing increases the stillness of the head during walking, running and landing.
Head bobbing is not caused by an anatomical link of feet to neck or something like that; instead, it's synchronized with the movements of the feet, and although this could and has suggested a biomechanical function (balance, like our arm-swinging movements during walking), experiments have proven that head motions are determined by visual stimuli rather than biomechanical or inner-ear stimulation.

This is from a scientific research paper (see link below).
http://www.biomotionlab.ca/Text/TrojeFrost00.pdf

Answer 2

"Basically the pigeon's back-and-forth head motion--not exactly a bob--helps it keep its balance when walking. The pigeon's legs are located pretty far astern, and if it kept its head forward all the time it would probably tip over. This would expose the pigeon to the ridicule of the community. Instead, what it does is move its chest forward in time with one leg, and its head forward in time with the other leg. Thus some weight is always trailing a little abaft the port beam, as we say. Many fowl have similarly peculiar gaits, because they cannot afford orthopedic shoes."

Answer 3

Actually, the reason they do it is to keep their view of the area around them in focus and stable at all times. If you notice, pigeons actually move their head inbetween steps, That means that their visual field is not blurred by the movement of their legs.

Don't forget, pigeons are a prey species and as such, they have to be continually monitoring the environment for potential predators. These can be ground dwelling or aerial. Pigeons can also see almost 300-340 degrees around (just about a complete circle -- except for just about directly behind their head) and they CAN see forward just fine and actually have an overlap of binocular vision (like ours) of about 20-30 degrees or so.

Pigeons have evolved to pick out movement at great distances. Watch a bird on the ground suddenly focus one eye on a high flying (to us almost invisible) hawk going over and you'll see just how acute their eyesight is.

Answer 4

Basically, their heads take a small while to catch up with their bodies.

Answer 5

Two reasons:

1) Because their eyes are on either side of their head and they can't see directly in front of them unless they do this. (They can see distant stuff in front of them but not right in front.)

2) It helps them to maintain balance.

Answer 6

They are imitating Rap Stars!!

Answer 7

keeping time with the beat

Answer 8

yeah, they're keeping the beat !