Can Pigeons See in the Dark? Barely: Owls See 100 Times Better

Pigeons can see a little in dim light, but their night vision is poor. Their eyes are built for daylight, and a tawny owl’s eyes are about 100 times more sensitive. Pigeons normally roost from dusk to dawn, although some feed under bright city lights and racing pigeons sometimes fly home after dark.

Grey pigeon standing on the ground in near darkness, lit faintly from one side

Pigeon night vision at a glance

Question	Short answer	Evidence
Can pigeons see in the dark?	A little in dim light; very poorly in real darkness	Lab tests of dark adaptation (Blough 1956)
How do they compare with owls?	A tawny owl’s eyes are about 100 times more sensitive	BTO; Martin (1977)
How do they compare with people?	Less sensitive than a human eye	Worked out from the owl comparisons (see the chart)
Do pigeons fly at night?	Rarely; racing birds usually stop at dusk	Race reports; US Army Pigeon Service
Are they active under streetlights?	Some feed at night where lighting is bright	Leveau (2020), Argentine cities
Does light at night affect them?	Street-level light cut pigeons’ sleep by about 4 hours	Aulsebrook et al. (2020)

Sources are listed at the end of the article.

Why pigeons see poorly at night

Pigeons are day birds. Their retinas hold a large proportion of cones, the receptors that work in bright light and give colour vision, and each cone has a coloured oil droplet that refines colour still further, according to the Avian Visual Cognition project at Tufts University. That set-up gives pigeons sharp, colourful daytime vision (see how well pigeons see) but leaves less of the retina for dim light.

Pigeons do have rods, the receptors used at night. In the 1950s Donald Blough trained pigeons to peck one key when a faint light was visible and another when it was not, and tracked their sensitivity as they sat in the dark. Their dark adaptation had two stages, as ours does, with the cones contributing a larger share of the sensitivity than in human eyes.

Owls are built the other way. The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) says a tawny owl’s tubular eye forms an image about 2.7 times brighter than a human eye, and that its visual sensitivity is about 100 times that of a diurnal bird like a pigeon.

Can pigeons see better than humans at night?

No. Graham Martin measured tawny owls with the same apparatus used for people and found their sensitivity averaged about 2.2 times a human’s. The BTO puts the owl at about 100 times a pigeon. Put those two figures together and a dark-adapted person can detect light roughly 45 times fainter than the faintest light a pigeon can see, which is how the chart above was drawn. The figure is rough, because both owls and people vary, but it shows that pigeons are worse than us at night, not better.

By day the picture changes. Pigeons can detect ultraviolet light, which we cannot, as Kreithen and Eisner showed in 1978, and their eyes on the sides of the head give them a far wider field of view than ours. Their head-bobbing keeps the view steady while they walk. Their eye colour has nothing to do with night vision; see why pigeons have red eyes.

Dark grey pigeon with a white cere facing the camera against a black background

What pigeons do at night

Feral pigeons spend the night on a sheltered roost: a ledge, a beam under a bridge, a roof space or a hole in a wall. Animal Diversity Web notes that pigeons are most often seen in daylight and seek cover at night. In a 2020 lab study, pigeons averaged about 10 hours of sleep a night.

Like many birds, a resting pigeon can sleep with one eye open, keeping half of its brain more alert. In the dark that open eye can still pick up light and nearby movement, but not much detail. For roost sites, posture and naps, see how pigeons sleep.

Poor night vision is one reason roosting pigeons are vulnerable to large owls and to rats and cats that can reach a low perch. Our guide to the natural predators of pigeons covers which animals hunt pigeons after dark.

Dark-feathered pigeon with an orange eye, photographed side-on against a black background

Do pigeons fly at night?

Rarely. A pigeon seen moving about in the dark has usually been disturbed from its roost. Pigeons do not set out to travel at night, and they rarely navigate in the dark.

Racing pigeons usually stop at dusk, roost wherever they are and fly on at first light, so the longest pigeon races last more than one day. Some birds near the end of a long flight do carry on into the dark: in the 2009 New Zealand flight recorded in our article on how far a pigeon can fly, the last 40 minutes were flown after dark.

Armies tried to train pigeons for night work. According to the Army Historical Foundation, the US Army Pigeon Service bred birds for their willingness to fly at night and usually chose night birds only after three generations had shown promise. Training started at dusk, with each session a little later, until the birds were flying home in full darkness.

Pale pigeon flying with its wings raised against a dark background

Pigeons under streetlights

City lighting changes pigeon behaviour. Lucas Leveau surveyed the centres of four Argentine cities in 2016 and found pigeons feeding at night in three of them: Buenos Aires, Salta and Mar del Plata. The chance of finding pigeons feeding rose with the brightness of the street, and it was highest where light levels were above about 100 lux. At some of the Buenos Aires sites, people were feeding them.

Light at night also costs pigeons sleep. Researchers at the University of Melbourne and La Trobe University fitted pigeons with small brain-activity recorders and exposed them to light as bright as street lighting. The pigeons lost around four hours of sleep, and amber light was as disruptive as white light. If you keep pigeons, a loft that is dark at night lets them rest; the frillback pigeon guide notes that security lights coming on at night can upset breeding birds.

Found a pigeon out at night?

A healthy pigeon spends the night on a high, sheltered perch. One that is sitting on the ground after dark and does not fly off when you come close may be ill, injured or a youngster that has left the nest too early. See what to do if you find an injured pigeon for how to contain and warm it and who to call.

Frequently asked questions

Can pigeons see at night?

Only a little. Pigeons can make out light, shapes and movement in dim light such as moonlight or streetlights, but they see much less than a person would, and far less than an owl. They normally roost from dusk until dawn.

Do pigeons have night vision?

Not good night vision. They have rods, the cells used in dim light, and their eyes adapt to darkness in two stages as human eyes do, but their retinas are dominated by cones for daytime colour vision.

Are pigeons blind in the dark?

No. They can still detect light and nearby movement, which is why a resting pigeon may wake and shift if something approaches. They cannot see well enough to fly safely or find food in real darkness.

Do pigeons fly at night?

Rarely. Racing pigeons usually stop at dusk and continue the next morning, although some finish a long flight after dark. Military pigeon services once bred and trained special night-flying birds.

Where do pigeons go at night?

They roost on sheltered ledges, beams, bridges, roof spaces and holes in buildings, often in groups. Breeding birds sit on their eggs or chicks overnight. See how pigeons sleep.

Should I leave a light on for my pigeons at night?

It is better not to. In a 2020 study, light as bright as street lighting cut pigeons’ sleep by about four hours a night. A dark, quiet loft lets them rest. See pigeons as pets.

Sources

We checked each source on 4 November 2026.

Last updated 4 November 2026 · Behavior