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Est. 2020 · Health pages checked by a vet
Wood pigeons rarely sit still on open ground. One that lets you walk right up to it usually needs help.
Health · Updated Oct 2026
A towel, a cardboard box and a phone call will do more good than food or water. Here is the order to do things in.
By Cristina Vulpe
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The guide, by section
Did you know
Pigeons drink by sucking water up, like through a straw. Most birds have to scoop and tip their heads back.
Both parents feed their squabs on crop milk, a rich food made from cells shed by the lining of the crop.
In October 1918 a pigeon called Cher Ami carried the message that helped save 194 trapped American soldiers, despite being shot on the way.
In a 1995 study, pigeons learned to tell paintings by Monet from paintings by Picasso, including ones they had never seen.
Homing pigeons find their way using the sun and the Earth's magnetic field, and they also learn landmarks near home.
A Belgian racing pigeon called New Kim sold at auction in 2020 for €1.6 million.
The last passenger pigeon, Martha, died at Cincinnati Zoo on 1 September 1914. A century earlier the species numbered in the billions.
Town pigeons are the descendants of domestic pigeons that went feral. Their wild ancestor is the rock dove of sea cliffs.
![pigeon drinking water]()
No head-tipping required.![A US Army Signal Corps soldier attaching a message to a carrier pigeon, about 1917 to 1918]()
A US Army Signal Corps carrier pigeon, about 1917–18. US National Archives, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.![a passenger pigeon in 1897]()
A live passenger pigeon photographed in 1898.
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