Pigeon keepers have their own vocabulary. This page gathers the words people search for most, with short answers and links to longer guides.
What is a male pigeon called?
A male pigeon is a cock. Males and females look much alike in most breeds and are about the same size, and both sit on the eggs, so telling them apart takes practice. Cocks tend to coo, puff up and drag their tails more during courtship. See how to sex a pigeon.
What is a female pigeon called?
A female pigeon is a hen. Fanciers often call a hen under a year old a young hen and an older bird an old hen. The same goes for cocks.
What is a baby pigeon called?
A baby pigeon is a squab. Squabs stay in the nest and are fed crop milk by both parents. At around four weeks old they are nearly adult size and start to leave the nest, and from then they are usually called fledglings or, by racing fanciers, young birds. Because they stay hidden until they are almost grown, most people never see a baby pigeon. See what does a baby pigeon look like and the pigeon age chart.
The word squab is also used for young pigeons raised for meat.
What is a group of pigeons called?
The everyday term is a flock. Older and less common collective nouns include a kit (used for a group flying together, often tumblers or rollers), a loft (birds kept together), a flight, a passel and a dropping. “Kit” is still used by fanciers today. Most of the others survive mainly in lists of collective nouns.
Other useful terms
- Loft: the building where pigeons are housed. Also called a coop. See how to build a pigeon coop.
- Fancier: someone who keeps and breeds pigeons, for racing or showing.
- Ring or band: the leg ring that identifies a pigeon. See pigeon banding.
- Cere: the fleshy patch at the base of the beak. See pigeon cere.
- Crop milk: the food both parents produce in their crop to feed squabs. See do pigeons produce milk.
- Homer: a pigeon bred for its homing ability, including racing pigeons.
- Feral pigeon: a domestic pigeon gone wild, the bird of town and city streets. See feral pigeons.
- Rock dove: the wild ancestor of all domestic and feral pigeons.
- Columbidae: the scientific family that includes all pigeons and doves. Pronounced kuh-LUM-bih-dee. See difference between dove and pigeon.
Last updated 21 October 2026 · Facts