“Types of pigeon” can mean two different things. One is the wild species in the pigeon and dove family, Columbidae. Our guide to the difference between doves and pigeons, reviewed by veterinarian Cristina Vulpe, DVM, PhD, puts the family at 344 known species, 13 of them now extinct. The other is the domestic breeds, all descended from the rock dove, Columba livia. Breeders have shaped these into more than 175 breeds, according to the poultry extension service at extension.org (opens in new tab), for racing and flying, and for the show pen or for meat. The US National Pigeon Association’s standard (opens in new tab) organises a still larger set into groups such as form, colour, owls and frills, pouters and croppers, and tumblers, rollers and highflyers.
The list below covers both. It starts with the five pigeons and doves you are most likely to see in the UK, then other wild species, then domestic breeds grouped by the work or look they were bred for. Names link to a fuller guide where we have one.
Jump to: Wild pigeons in the UK · Wild pigeons around the world · Pigeon or dove? · Domestic pigeon breeds · Racing and homing · Tumblers, rollers and highflyers · Pouters and croppers · Frills and owls · Fantails, hoods and other structure breeds · Trumpeters · Wattle breeds · Utility and meat breeds · Colour pigeons and marked show breeds · Syrian and Middle Eastern breeds · White release doves · Welfare · How to identify a pigeon · FAQ
Wild pigeons in the UK
The RSPB’s identification guide (opens in new tab) lists five pigeons and doves you are likely to see in Britain and Ireland. A woodpigeon is the everyday countryside bird. A grey bird in a town or city is usually a feral pigeon, not a wild rock dove.
| Feature | Woodpigeon | Stock dove | Rock dove / feral pigeon | Collared dove | Turtle dove |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scientific name | Columba palumbus | Columba oenas | Columba livia | Streptopelia decaocto | Streptopelia turtur |
| Size | Largest of the UK pigeons | Smaller and neater than a woodpigeon | Similar in size to a stock dove; build varies | Medium, slimmer and longer-tailed | Smallest of these five |
| Neck | Adults have a white patch on each side; juveniles lack it | Green sheen; no white patch | Often a green or purple sheen; colour varies | Thin black half-collar | No white woodpigeon patch; pinkish head and neck |
| Wing in flight | Broad white band, including in juveniles | Dark edges; no broad white band | No woodpigeon-style white band; wild-type birds have two dark bars | No white woodpigeon band; brownish wings | Orange and black chequered wings |
| Other clues | Pinkish breast; loud wing clatter on take-off | Dark eye; two short black bars on the closed wing; rump not pale | Wild-type birds have a pale rump; feral birds come in many colours | Pale grey-brown overall | Summer visitor; now scarce in the UK |
Woodpigeon
The woodpigeon (Columba palumbus) is the UK’s largest and most common pigeon, with millions of breeding pairs. Adults are grey with a pinkish breast, a pale yellow eye, a white patch on each side of the neck and a broad white band across each wing. Juveniles lack the neck patch, but they already show the white wing band. The diet is mainly leaves, buds, seeds, berries and grain. The species also breeds across Europe and into North Africa and Asia, and BirdLife International lists it as Least Concern.
Rock dove
The rock dove (Columba livia) is the wild ancestor of every domestic pigeon breed, and of the feral flocks in towns. A wild-type bird is blue-grey with two dark wing bars and a pale rump. In the UK and Ireland, genuinely wild rock doves now survive mainly on sea cliffs, especially in Scotland and Ireland, as the RSPB account of the rock dove and feral pigeon (opens in new tab) explains. A bird on a city ledge is almost always feral, even if it happens to wear wild-type colours.
Feral pigeon
Feral pigeons are free-living descendants of domestic rock doves. They live in towns, cities and farmland on every continent except Antarctica, and they are the most familiar pigeon worldwide. Colour runs from classic blue-grey to black, red-brown, pied and white, because their ancestors were already mixed by breeding. They nest on ledges, in buildings and under bridges, the closest match to the cliffs their wild ancestors used.
Stock dove
The stock dove (Columba oenas) is a blue-grey wild pigeon with a dark eye, a green neck sheen and no white neck patch. It is smaller than a woodpigeon and nests in holes in trees, not on an open branch. In Britain, look for it near mature trees and farmland. In flight the wings have dark edges and no broad white band. The UK holds a large share of the European population, though the bird is scarcer in northern Scotland and Ireland.
Eurasian collared dove
The Eurasian collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto) is pale grey-brown with a thin black half-collar. It spread across Europe from the Middle East and South Asia in the twentieth century and is now also established in Japan, the Caribbean and North America. The IUCN lists it as Least Concern, with a large and still expanding range. In a garden it is slimmer and paler than a woodpigeon, and it lacks white wing patches.
Turtle dove
The European turtle dove (Streptopelia turtur) is the smallest of the regular UK pigeons and doves, with orange and black chequered wings and a purring “turr turr” call that gave the bird its name. It is a summer visitor. The RSPB notes that birds travel up to 3,000 miles each way to and from West Africa, and that the UK population fell sharply from the mid-1970s to 2020. If you hear or see one, it is worth a second look: this is no longer an everyday countryside bird.
Wild pigeons around the world
Pigeons and doves live on every continent except Antarctica. The species below are grouped loosely by region. Some are everyday birds, such as the mourning dove in North America. Others are island endemics with small ranges, or species that have already been lost.
See also our guide to Australian pigeons and doves for a country-level survey, and whether pigeons are endangered.
North and South America
Mourning dove
The mourning dove (Zenaida macroura) is one of the most widespread and abundant birds in North America, named for its long, sad-sounding coo. It is a slim, long-tailed dove, sometimes still called a Carolina pigeon or, locally, a turtle dove, though it is not the European turtle dove. It feeds mainly on seeds and is a familiar bird of farms, towns and roadsides.
Band-tailed pigeon
The band-tailed pigeon (Patagioenas fasciata) is usually described as the largest pigeon north of Mexico, and it is one of the closest living relatives of the extinct passenger pigeon. It lives in western North America, in coastal forests and in mountain woods of the interior. Heavy hunting once cut its numbers sharply; legal protection and hunting limits helped the population recover.
Inca dove
The Inca dove (Columbina inca) is a small, long-tailed dove of Mexico, Central America south to Costa Rica, and the south-western United States. It is 18 to 23 cm long, with sandy grey-brown feathers edged in dark brown, which gives it a scaly look. Most birds live close to people, in towns, parks and gardens, and feed on seeds on the ground. The call is a two-note coo often written as “no hope”. The IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
Pale-vented pigeon
The pale-vented pigeon (Patagioenas cayennensis) is a large, shy, tree-dwelling pigeon of the tropical Americas, from southern Mexico to Bolivia and northern Argentina, with birds also on Tobago and locally on Trinidad. It usually perches high up to feed, though it sometimes comes to the ground and, in some places, visits parks and town edges.
Bare-eyed pigeon
The bare-eyed pigeon (Patagioenas corensis) lives in northern Colombia and Venezuela and on Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. It is named for the large patch of bare skin around each eye. It can be mistaken for a white-winged dove until you see that face patch and the pigeon, rather than dove, build.
Africa, the Indian Ocean and nearby islands
Speckled pigeon
The speckled pigeon (Columba guinea), also called the African rock pigeon, is a pigeon of sub-Saharan Africa. It has a red patch of bare skin around each eye and reddish-brown wings covered with small white spots. It uses open grassland, savanna, rocky ground and, increasingly, towns.
Afep pigeon
The afep pigeon (Columba unicincta), also called the grey or African wood pigeon, is a large forest pigeon of the African equatorial belt. “Afep” means pigeon in the Bulu language of Cameroon. It lives in the forest canopy across a very large range, from West Africa through the Congo Basin, and is usually seen high in the trees rather than on city streets.
Lemon dove
The lemon dove (Columba larvata, also placed by some authors in Aplopelia), or cinnamon dove, is an African forest dove of sub-Saharan highlands, recorded up to about 3,000 metres. Unlike most Columba species it lives mainly on the ground. The English name comes from an old Cape Dutch word for orange trees, not from a diet of lemons.
Pink pigeon
The pink pigeon (Nesoenas mayeri) is found only on Mauritius and on the nearby predator-free island of Île aux Aigrettes. In 1991 only a handful of birds remained. A long conservation programme has since rebuilt a wild population, and the IUCN has listed the species as Vulnerable since 2018. Its recovery shows how close a well-known pigeon can come to disappearing.
Seychelles blue pigeon
The Seychelles blue pigeon (Alectroenas pulcherrimus) lives only in woodland on the Seychelles. The easiest field mark is a patch of bright red skin from the forehead to the crown, against blue-grey and white plumage. It is a fruit-eating island pigeon, one of a small group of blue pigeons in the western Indian Ocean.
Asia and the Pacific
Hill pigeon
The hill pigeon (Columba rupestris) looks at first like a feral pigeon, and it is a close wild relative of the rock dove. It lives in hills and mountains across a wide stretch of Asia, often above 1,500 metres, on cliffs, gorges and open high ground. Two subspecies are usually recognised, in the eastern and western parts of that range. In South Korea it is now very rare.
Andaman wood pigeon
The Andaman wood pigeon (Columba palumboides) is a large, grey fruit-eating pigeon found only in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. It lives in dense evergreen forest and is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List. It is the state bird of the Andaman Islands and should not be confused with the Nicobar pigeon, which shares the same island group but looks quite different.
Metallic pigeon
The metallic pigeon (Columba vitiensis), also called the white-throated pigeon, is a medium-sized species with a wide range from the Philippines and eastern Indonesia through New Guinea and island Melanesia to Fiji and Samoa. The pale throat patch varies from island to island. A subspecies that once lived on Lord Howe Island, the southernmost population, was hunted to extinction in the 1850s.
Pink-necked green pigeon
The pink-necked green pigeon (Treron vernans), sometimes called the rainbow pigeon, is a common fruit-eating green pigeon of South-East Asia. Males have a pink neck; females are mostly green. It belongs to the Treron group of green pigeons, which live in trees and eat fruit rather than pecking grain on city pavements.
Philippine green pigeon
The Philippine green pigeon (Treron axillaris) is a medium-sized forest pigeon of the Philippine lowlands, one of the birds formerly lumped in the pompadour green pigeon complex. It is mainly green, with yellow, white and grey details, and the sexes differ in the colour of the shoulder and back.
Pied imperial pigeon
The pied imperial pigeon (Ducula bicolor) is a large, plump fruit pigeon of South-East Asia, white with black flight feathers and tail. It is sometimes called the white nutmeg pigeon. The similar Torresian or Torres Strait pigeon of Australia and New Guinea is now usually treated as a separate species, Ducula spilorrhoa.
Black imperial pigeon
The black imperial pigeon (Ducula melanochroa) is a dark imperial pigeon found only in the Bismarck Archipelago of Papua New Guinea. The IUCN lists it as Least Concern, but it has been little studied, and its behaviour and exact numbers remain unclear.
Polynesian imperial pigeon
The Polynesian imperial pigeon (Ducula aurorae), also called the Society Islands or Tahiti imperial pigeon, is a large forest pigeon endemic to French Polynesia. It is listed as Endangered. The remaining population is associated with Makatea; the species is believed to be extinct, or nearly so, on Tahiti.
Nicobar pigeon
The Nicobar pigeon (Caloenas nicobarica) is the only living member of its genus. It has hackled, metallic neck feathers, a short white tail and a rather heavy bill. It lives on small islands from the Nicobar group through parts of South-East Asia and Melanesia, and it is often described as the closest living relative of the extinct dodo. It is a wild species, not a domestic breed, and is not an ordinary pet bird.
Victoria crowned pigeon
The Victoria crowned pigeon (Goura victoria) is one of the largest living pigeons, and one of four crowned pigeons of the New Guinea region. It is a largely ground-dwelling forest bird with a lacy blue crest, named in honour of Queen Victoria. Most people who see one see it in a zoo or aviary; it needs a great deal of space and is not a cage pet.
Black-naped pheasant pigeon
The black-naped pheasant pigeon (Otidiphaps insularis) is a ground-living pigeon known only from Fergusson Island in Papua New Guinea. There was no confirmed record between a specimen collected in 1896 and camera-trap images taken in September 2022. A follow-up survey in June and July 2025 did not find it again, though poor weather cut the work short. The IUCN Red List treats it as Critically Endangered. Some other checklists still treat it as a subspecies of the pheasant pigeon Otidiphaps nobilis.
Notou, or Goliath imperial pigeon
The Notou, or Goliath imperial pigeon (Ducula goliath), is one of the largest pigeons in the world. It lives only in the humid forests of New Caledonia and is listed as Near Threatened. It has long been hunted for food, and that pressure still matters for the species.
Kererū
The kererū, or New Zealand pigeon (Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae), is a large forest pigeon with iridescent green and purple plumage, a white breast and a loud whoosh of wings in flight. Adults can weigh 550 to 850 g. It is an important seed disperser in New Zealand forest, because it can swallow fruits that are too large for many other birds.
Tooth-billed pigeon
The tooth-billed pigeon (Didunculus strigirostris), or manumea, is a large fruit-eating pigeon found only in Samoa, where it is the national bird. It is listed as Critically Endangered. The hooked, toothed bill is unlike that of a typical pigeon, and the species is sometimes nicknamed the “little dodo” because of that bill and its close relationship to the dodo’s lineage.
Silvery pigeon
The silvery pigeon (Columba argentina), also called the silvery or grey wood pigeon, is a fairly large pigeon of small islands off Sumatra and Borneo. There were no confirmed records for many years after 1931, and the species was feared extinct, until a bird was photographed in 2008. It remains extremely rare. Confirmed records come from a few islands in the Barusan chain off western Sumatra.
Yellow-legged pigeon
The yellow-legged pigeon (Columba pallidiceps) is a wild forest pigeon of the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands, named for its yellow legs. It feeds on fruit and seeds. It was moved from Endangered to Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List in 2008 after surveys found it less rare than had been feared. It is not the yellow-footed green pigeon of the Indian subcontinent.
Australia and nearby islands
Crested pigeon
The crested pigeon (Ocyphaps lophotes) is a familiar Australian pigeon, recognised by its thin, erect head crest. It is widespread across much of the continent except the far northern tropics, and has become common in towns and on roadsides. It is one of only two Australian pigeons with an erect crest, the other being the smaller spinifex pigeon.
Common bronzewing
The common bronzewing (Phaps chalcoptera) is a sturdy, medium-sized pigeon found across much of Australia. The wing patch shines bronze, green and red in good light. It is one of the country’s most widespread native pigeons and is sometimes kept by aviculturists abroad.
Spinifex pigeon
Spinifex pigeons (Geophaps plumifera) are small, rusty-coloured ground pigeons with a tall, pointed crest. They live in rocky, arid and semi-arid country in northern and central Australia, usually within reach of water. Like their bronzewing relatives, they make a loud whirring sound with the wings when they take off.
Bar-shouldered dove
The bar-shouldered dove (Geopelia humeralis) is a medium-sized, long-tailed dove of northern and eastern Australia and New Guinea, also called the scrub or mangrove dove. It is grey-brown with a coppery nape and barred underparts, and it feeds on seeds on the ground. It is larger than a diamond dove or a peaceful dove.
Wonga pigeon
The wonga pigeon (Leucosarcia melanoleuca) is a shy, plump ground pigeon of eastern Australia, named from an Aboriginal word that echoes its call. It is grey above and white below, with a distinctive white V on the breast. Most of the population now lives between central Queensland and Gippsland in Victoria.
Partridge pigeon
The partridge pigeon (Geophaps smithii) is a medium-sized, ground-dwelling bronzewing endemic to parts of northern Australia. It is also called the bare-eyed partridge pigeon, after the patch of coloured skin around the eye. It shares its genus with the squatter pigeon and the spinifex pigeon.
Topknot pigeon
The topknot pigeon (Lopholaimus antarcticus) is a fruit-eating pigeon of eastern Australia, from Cape York to the south coast of New South Wales, named for the swept-back crest that shapes the head. Flocks travel long distances in search of fruiting trees and may appear well south of their usual range when food draws them on.
Chestnut-quilled rock pigeon
The chestnut-quilled rock pigeon (Petrophassa rufipennis) is a native pigeon of rocky country in northern Australia, not a descendant of the rock dove despite the name. It belongs to the Australian genus Petrophassa, with the white-quilled rock pigeon as its closest relative. The chestnut on the flight feathers is the feature to look for.
White-headed pigeon
The white-headed pigeon (Columba leucomela) is a large fruit-eating pigeon of eastern Australian rainforest, from Cooktown in Queensland to the Illawarra in New South Wales. The white head stands out against the dark grey body and wings. It is sometimes called the baldy pigeon.
Spotted dove
The spotted dove is a pink-breasted dove with a black patch at the back of the neck, densely marked with white spots. In 2024 the IUCN Red List assessed it as two species, both Least Concern: the Eastern Spotted Dove (Spilopelia chinensis) and the Western Spotted Dove (Spilopelia suratensis).
Eastern birds are familiar across East and South-East Asia, including Indonesia, and have been introduced to places such as Australia and Hawaii. Western birds are native on the Indian subcontinent, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. It is substantially larger than a zebra dove. Older books often treated the two spotted doves as one species.
Zebra dove
The zebra dove (Geopelia striata) is a slender, long-tailed dove of South-East Asia, named for the fine barring on its sides. It is about 21 cm long. The native range runs from southern Myanmar and the Thai-Malay Peninsula to Sumatra and Java. Introduced populations, including those released in Hawaii in 1922, are now common on many islands. The IUCN lists the species as Least Concern.
Diamond dove
The diamond dove (Geopelia cuneata) is a small Australian dove, 19 to 24 cm long and around 33 g, with white spots on the wings and a red eye-ring. It is the smallest dove in Australia and a popular aviary and pet bird. Pet birds should be captive-bred. They need floor space, a seed-based diet with some fresh food, a dust bath, and a companion of their own kind.
Extinct species
Passenger pigeon
The passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) was a North American pigeon that became extinct in the early twentieth century. An estimated 3 to 5 billion birds lived in North America when Europeans arrived. The last bird, Martha, died at Cincinnati Zoo on 1 September 1914. The collapse was a result of industrial-scale hunting and the breaking up of the forests the huge flocks needed.
Choiseul pigeon
The Choiseul pigeon (Microgoura meeki) was a crested pigeon of Choiseul Island, in the Solomon Islands. It was last seen more than a century ago. Almost everything known about it comes from specimens collected by Albert Stewart Meek in 1904, and later described by Walter Rothschild. No other population was ever documented.
Pigeon or dove?
There is no scientific difference. Both words describe members of the same family, and English usage tends to call smaller species doves. Some species called doves are more closely related to birds named pigeons than to other doves. See the difference between dove and pigeon.
Domestic pigeon breeds
Every domestic pigeon breed descends from the rock dove, Columba livia. That is why a fantail, a racing homer and a King can look unalike and still be the same species. Some doves kept in aviaries, such as the diamond dove above, are different wild species, not breeds of the rock dove.
The 4-H Pigeon and Dove Project from Oregon State University (opens in new tab) groups domestic pigeons into three classes: utility, fancy and flying. The NPA standard uses finer groups, which the sections below follow in a simplified form.
| Group | Bred mainly for | What to look for | Examples on this page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Racing and homing | Speed, stamina and the ability to return to one loft | Athletic build; a leg ring on a lost bird often means a racer | Racing Homer, Show Homer, Egyptian Swift |
| Tumblers, rollers and highflyers | Aerial performance or time in the air | Somersaults, long climbs, or endurance circling | Birmingham Roller, Oriental Roller, Parlor Roller, tippler, Cumulet |
| Pouters and croppers | An inflated crop, or “globe”, and an upright stance | A balloon of air in the crop; often long legs | English Pouter, Dutch Cropper |
| Frills and owls | Head shape, a short beak and a breast frill | Round head, small beak, reversed chest feathers | African Owl, Chinese Owl, Old German Owl, Turbit |
| Structure and ornament | Unusual feathering or posture | Hoods, fans, curls, crests | Jacobin, Indian Fantail, Frillback, Old Dutch Capuchine |
| Trumpeters | Voice, plus foot and head feathering in many breeds | A drumming or laughing call; often a crest and muffs | Bokhara Trumpeter |
| Wattle breeds | A large cere and wattle | Heavy flesh around the beak and eyes | Barb, Dragoon, Scandaroon, English Carrier |
| Utility and meat | Squab production, and often exhibition as well | Heavy body, short legs, limited long-distance flight | King, Carneau, French Mondain, Giant Runt |
| Colour and marked breeds | Colour, pattern and markings | Shield, bar, lace or contrast markings | Ice pigeon, Archangel, Lahore, Modena |
Racing and homing pigeons
These birds were bred for speed, stamina and the ability to find their way back to one loft from an unfamiliar place. In everyday speech a “carrier pigeon” usually means a trained homing pigeon. The English Carrier is a different show breed with a large wattle, and is not the messenger bird.
Racing Homer
The Racing Homer is the main breed of pigeon racing, and the bird used historically to carry messages home. It is an athletic domestic rock dove, selected for the will and the ability to return to its own loft. Exceptional birds have returned from hundreds of miles. Training usually starts at about five to six weeks of age and builds distance gradually; see how to train a homing pigeon and how fast pigeons fly. A lost bird with a leg ring may still belong to someone: see what to do if you find a racing pigeon.
Show Homer
The Show Homer is an exhibition bird in the NPA form group, judged on shape rather than on a race clock. Poultry extension writing notes that show-type pigeons selected from working breeds tend to be larger, blockier and heavier than the utility or flying birds they came from. It still looks like a homer, but it is a show bench bird.
Egyptian Swift
The Egyptian Swift is named for long wings and fast flight that recall a swift, not because it is related to swifts. It has a short beak, long wings and a long tail. In the United States it is classed as a flying pigeon; in Europe it is often classed as a utility bird. It is an old Egyptian breed, described in European pigeon books in the nineteenth century, and it exists in many colour varieties.
Dragoon
The Dragoon is one of the older British breeds, with written evidence from 1735, and it was later used in the making of the racing homer. Today it is usually grouped with the wattle pigeons and kept for exhibition. It was once among the most popular breeds in Britain. Charles Darwin kept Dragoons and used domestic pigeons in his work on variation under domestication.
Tumblers, rollers and highflyers
This is the largest NPA group. Rollers and tumblers were bred for somersaults in the air. A few, such as the Parlor Roller, somersault on the ground rather than in flight. Highflyers were bred to climb and to stay up. Many breeds in the group are now shown as well as, or instead of, being flown. The mid-air roll is a selected behaviour with a genetic basis; see why tumbler pigeons tumble.
Birmingham Roller
The Birmingham Roller was developed and popularised in and around Birmingham, in the UK. A good bird turns over backwards in a tight, rapid spin, often in a “kit” of birds flying together. It is the roller breed most people mean when they talk about performing tumblers.
Parlor Roller
The Parlor Roller is a domestic pigeon that somersaults along the ground instead of flying. Adults generally cannot fly. The rolling is a selected, progressive movement disorder, not a trick the bird chooses to perform. Show standards also cover Parlor Tumblers, which jump and somersault on the spot rather than travelling along the ground. These birds are not the same as Birmingham Rollers or Oriental Rollers, which still fly.
Oriental Roller
The Oriental Roller is a slightly larger roller, thought to have originated in parts of Asia and the Middle East, and popular in Britain in the nineteenth century. It is often treated as one of the ancestors of the Birmingham Roller. In stance it carries the wings below an upturned tail. Flying and exhibition strains both exist.
Tippler
A tippler is a domestic pigeon bred in England in the nineteenth century for endurance flying, not for racing. A kit of three or more birds is released at dawn and circles above its own loft for as long as it can; the flight is timed. The longest flight on the Dutch tippler club’s international record list is 22 hours 5 minutes, by Harry Shannon’s old birds in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, in 1995. The birds come down when the flyer puts out “droppers” of another breed to show them where to land.
Cumulet
The Cumulet is an old high-flying breed, generally said to have come from France, though early English writers also met the birds in Belgium. It became popular in England in the nineteenth century as a sporting highflyer. Old accounts sometimes claim very long flights; unlike the tippler, those claims are not backed by a modern, well-kept record list of the same kind.
Danzig Highflier
The Danzig Highflier, or Danziger Highflyer, is a high-flying breed associated with Gdańsk (Danzig). Like many breeds in this group, it is now also kept and shown for its type and colour. It sits in the NPA tumbler, roller and highflyer group.
Mookee
The Mookee is a small to medium fancy pigeon from India, often described as one of the oldest Indian fancy breeds. Breed histories say it had reached England by the mid-1600s and later spread through Europe. It is now kept mainly for exhibition. It should not be confused with a high-flying working breed of the same region, such as the Gola.
Helmet
The Helmet is a marked fancy pigeon with a coloured “helmet” on a white body, also called the German Helmet. References may go back a long way, and the breed was well known in Germany by the 1700s, but much of its modern development took place in the United States after the 1950s. Short-faced and medium-faced types exist. Until the later twentieth century the medium-faced Helmet was still flown as a tumbler; today most are show birds.
Nun
The Nun is an old fancy pigeon named for its black-and-white colouring and crest, which suggest a nun’s habit. In some places it is called the Dutch Shell pigeon. There are references from the 1600s and from John Moore in 1735, and the breed is often linked by ancestry to the Helmet. It is kept for exhibition.
Indian Gola
The Gola, or Indian Gola, is a medium-sized flying pigeon from northern India and Pakistan, weighing up to about 14 oz (400 g), with orange-red eyes, crimson legs and tight, hard feathering. Most are grizzled or tiger-marked. They fly fast and straight, without tumbling. American breeders later used them to create the larger Indian Mondaine.
Pouters and croppers
Pouters and croppers are bred to inflate the crop, a food storage pouch at the base of the neck, into a round “globe”. The habit is a selected form of a normal pigeon display. They are kept for exhibition, and some of the taller, heavier types need careful housing.
English Pouter
The English Pouter is a tall, slim fancy pigeon bred to stand almost upright on long, feathered legs while it inflates its crop under the head. It was developed in Britain from older European pouter and cropper breeds and has been described by fanciers since at least 1735. Charles Darwin, who kept and measured pouters, called the improved English Pouter “perhaps the most distinct of all domesticated pigeons”.
Dutch Cropper
The Dutch Cropper is a large fancy pigeon with a balloon crop and well-feathered legs. It is often described as the oldest and largest fancy pigeon breed of the Netherlands. Croppers of this kind have been mentioned in the Low Countries since at least 1600, and the breed shares a family likeness with other European pouters, including the English Pouter.
Frills and owls
Owl and frill breeds share a short beak, a rounded head and, in most, a breast frill of reversed feathers. Some of the shortest-faced types can have trouble feeding their own young, so welfare is part of choosing a breed in this group.
African Owl
The African Owl is a small fancy pigeon with a very short beak and a round head, which give it an owl-like profile. It originated in North Africa, often said to be Tunisia, and became well known in Britain in the nineteenth century, where it was first called the Foreign Owl to distinguish it from the larger English Owl. It is a toy exhibition breed, not a flying or utility bird.
Chinese Owl
The Chinese Owl, also called the Whiskered Owl, is a small exhibition pigeon with a dense breast frill. Despite the name, it probably did not come from China. Its exact origin is unclear; some histories point to India or Spain, and German fanciers were keeping and developing the breed by the 1860s. It is kept for showing and as an ornamental bird.
Old German Owl
The Old German Owl, or Altdeutsches Mövchen, is a German fancy pigeon and the starting type for the short-faced German Shield Owls. In Germany it was first known as the Little Gull (Mövchen) because of its markings. Oriental Frills and Anatolian Owls imported around 1870 are likely to have played a part in its development. It comes in many colours and is still most common in Germany.
Italian Owl
The Italian Owl is a small exhibition pigeon developed in northern Italy. Exact early dates are unknown, but the breed is more than a century old. It was imported into Germany in 1880, and Italian exhibitors showed birds at the World’s Poultry Congress in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1939. It remains a specialist show breed.
Aachen Lacquer Shield Owl
The Aachen Lacquer Shield Owl, or Aachener Lackschildmövchen, is a small German exhibition pigeon. It originated in Germany, and sources suggest a history going back before 1765, though the early names are confused and some writers have compared it to turbits as well as to owls. It is kept for the show bench.
Turbit
The Turbit is a fancy pigeon with a short beak, a peaked crest and a frilled breast, developed in its modern form in Britain. It has been known since the seventeenth or eighteenth century; Willughby mentioned it in 1678 and Moore in 1735. Related varieties include the Old Dutch Turbit and the Oriental Turbit. It is mainly a show bird, though it can fly well.
Antwerp Smerle
The Antwerp Smerle is a Belgian fancy pigeon that was one of the main breeds used to create the modern homing pigeon. It is also an exhibition bird in its own right, with a distinctive head and beak. A Belgian specialist club issued a show standard in 1924, and English breeders later crossed the Smerle with the Turbit to change the head. The British Antwerp Smerle Club was formed in 1932.
Valencian Figurita
The Valencian Figurita is a very small Spanish exhibition pigeon in the NPA owls and frills group. It is kept for its tiny, neat type and is one of the smallest domestic pigeon breeds you are likely to see at a show.
Seraphim
The Seraphim is an all-white show pigeon bred in East Moline, Illinois, by the fancier Anne Ellis from her Classic Oriental Frills. She was aiming for birds that lost the usual red of the Oriental Frill and came out white; her first reaction, “angels!”, gave the breed its name. It is an ornamental exhibition bird, not a wild white dove.
Fantails, hoods and other structure breeds
The NPA structure group is a mixed set of ornamental breeds whose look depends on unusual feathering or posture: hoods, fans, curls and capes.
Indian Fantail
The Indian Fantail is a fancy pigeon bred for a broad, raised tail of 30 to 40 feathers, far more than the usual 12. Fantails are among the oldest ornamental breeds; the Indian type was already known in India by the sixteenth century, and later breeders in Britain and the United States developed a separate American Fantail. Indian Fantails are the larger of the two, and they have a crest and feathered feet.
Jacobin
The Jacobin is a slim, upright exhibition pigeon known for its hood: reversed neck feathers that cover the head, with a mane behind and a chain down each side of the face. The breed is centuries old, but its exact origin is unknown. India and Cyprus have both been suggested, and an English source of 1603 called them “Cyprus pigeons”. The name comes from the hooded habits of the Jacobin (Dominican) friars of Paris. In the US standard it sits in the structure group.
Frillback
The Frillback is an old fancy breed with tight curls, or frills, on the wing-shield feathers, and usually feathered feet. It is thought to come from Asia Minor (Anatolia) and is kept mainly as a show bird. Charles Darwin described the “Frill-back” in his writing on domestic pigeons.
Old Dutch Capuchine
The Old Dutch Capuchine is a fancy pigeon with a hood and crest, developed in its modern form in the Netherlands. Deeper origins are usually placed in India and the Middle East, with birds said to have been brought to the Low Countries by Dutch sailors, possibly as early as the 1500s. Similar birds appear in seventeenth-century Dutch paintings, and later in works by the Belgian painter Henri Voordecker. It is kept for exhibition and as a pet.
English Magpie
The English Magpie is a tall, slender fancy pigeon with an erect stance and piebald markings. Breed histories derive it from an older German or Danish Elster (magpie) tumbler, later lengthened and refined in England, with some French Baghdad blood. In England it has long been nicknamed the “Queen of Pigeons” for that upright, elegant outline. It is a show bird.
Maltese
The Maltese is a tall, very upright fancy pigeon. Despite the name, there is little evidence of a link to Malta. Breed histories place its development in Austria and Germany in the nineteenth century, possibly from a cross that included a French Baghdad pigeon. It is kept for exhibition.
Florentine
The Florentine is a hen-shaped Italian pigeon, developed in its current form in Florence in the nineteenth century from older Italian utility types, originally for meat. As demand for squab declined, it became mainly an exhibition breed. Most birds are still kept in Italy, with smaller followings in Germany and the United States.
Tiger Swallow
The Tiger Swallow, known in Europe as the Bohemian Fairy Swallow, is a marked exhibition pigeon from Bohemia, in what is now the Czech Republic. Related “swallow” pigeons were also developed in neighbouring parts of Central Europe, which is why some birds are called Saxon or Silesian swallows. The type is named for pointed, swallow-like wings and a contrast pattern on the body.
Trumpeters
Trumpeters were originally kept for their voice, a drumming or laughing call unlike a typical coo. Many of the modern show forms also have lavish foot feathering and a crest.
Bokhara Trumpeter
The Bokhara Trumpeter is one of the best-known trumpeter breeds, with a double crest and long muffed feet. It was originally cultivated for its voice and is now also prized for those feather ornaments. Researchers C. A. M. Spruijt and Edmund Zurth placed its origin in southern Russia, Central Asia and Turkestan, with the city of Bukhara the most likely centre that gave the breed its name.
Wattle breeds
Wattle pigeons are bred for a large cere (the fleshy patch at the base of the beak) and, often, a heavy eye cere. They are show birds today. Some, such as the Dragoon, also have a place in the history of the homing pigeon.
Barb
The Barb is an English wattle breed, developed from birds thought to have come from North Africa, the old “Barbary Coast”, and known in England by at least the 1500s. Shakespeare mentions a barb. Related barb types were later developed in Spain, Germany and Poland. It is a fancy exhibition pigeon, not a wild African species.
Scandaroon
The Scandaroon is a large, long-faced wattle pigeon, once raised for meat and now kept for exhibition and as a pet. Ulisse Aldrovandi wrote about the type around 1600, as Columba turcica or Columba persica. A Persian origin is often suggested, with birds reaching western Europe through Middle Eastern ports. John Moore, in 1735, discussed the name Scandaroon.
English Carrier
The English Carrier is a tall wattle breed kept for exhibition, with a long face and a very large cere. It belongs to the NPA wattle group. Despite the everyday use of “carrier pigeon” for a message-carrying homer, this breed is not the bird used to carry messages. That work is done by racing and homing pigeons.
Utility and meat breeds
Utility, or squab, breeds were selected for a heavy body and a good yield of young birds raised for meat. Many are now also, or mainly, show birds. The heaviest types are poor long-distance flyers and spend much of their time on the floor of the loft. For the meat itself, see which pigeons you can eat.
King
The King is a large American breed developed in the 1890s for squab production. It now exists in two forms: the Utility King, still kept for meat and to rear other pairs’ young, and the heavier Show King, bred for exhibition. The American King Club standard asks for show birds of 30 to 37 oz (about 850 to 1,050 g), more than twice the weight of a typical wild rock dove. Show Kings fly poorly and spend most of their time on the ground. They are also kept as calm pets.
Carneau
The Carneau is a large utility pigeon from northern France, bred mainly for squab. Accounts say it was produced by crossing the French Mondain with the rock dove, and the Fontaine family is often named in the breed’s early history. As birds were selected for weight they lost the free-flying habits of earlier farm flocks. It remains a meat and exhibition breed.
French Mondain
The French Mondain is a large, low-legged, broad-chested utility and show breed selected in France and homologated in 1931. The Club des Amis du Mondain wants hens of about 1,000 g and cocks of about 1,100 g, with a near-horizontal stance and a deep breast. It is a floor-dwelling meat and exhibition bird, not a racer. By comparison, wild-type rock dove adults average about 360 g (BTO).
Giant Runt
The Giant Runt is a very large utility and show breed, today most often associated with American breeding. A 1920 USDA squab guide put mature cocks at 2.5 to 3 lb (about 1.1 to 1.4 kg) and hens at 2 to 2.5 lb (about 0.9 to 1.1 kg). “Runt” here is an old breed name for big Mediterranean meat pigeons, not a comment on a weak bird.
Hungarian Giant House pigeon
The Hungarian Giant House pigeon is one of the largest domestic breeds, with birds of up to about 1 kg (2.2 lb) and a wingspan that can reach around 3 feet. Breed histories place its current form in Hungary, with heavier meat pigeons introduced during the period of Ottoman rule often named as the starting stock. In the mid-1930s the old house pigeon began to be crossed with other large, heavily feathered types to produce the modern exhibition bird.
Strasser
The Strasser is a European breed used both for exhibition and for squab. Most sources trace it to Moravia, now part of the Czech Republic, and Austria, with later development in Germany. It is said to have been formed as a utility breed in the late nineteenth century, with an emphasis on a large, meaty body. A typical colour is white with dark bars or checks. Adult weights around 700 to 750 g are quoted in breed accounts.
Coburg Lark
The Coburg Lark, also called the Gold Lark or Koburger Lark, is a German fancy pigeon from the Coburg, Thuringia and Saxony region. It was already known in the early 1800s and was included by Gottlob Neumeister in Das Ganze der Taubenzucht, first published in 1837. It is kept as a show bird, with colour and markings in the lark style.
Hyacinth
The Hyacinth is a French colour breed, plain-headed and clean-legged, kept for a blue ground colour with white spangling on the wing shield. Lyell classified it as a French breed in 1887, as the Pigeon maillé jacinthe. High-quality birds are uncommon, because the spangling is hard to get right, and the breed is seen mainly in France and neighbouring countries.
Colour pigeons and marked show breeds
Colour pigeons, many of them German in origin, are bred first for ground colour and markings. Some other marked show breeds, such as the Lahore and the Modena, are placed by the NPA in the form group, but they are easiest to look at here because their pattern is what most people notice.
Ice pigeon
The Ice pigeon (German Eistaube) is one of the oldest German colour pigeons, a sturdy, low-standing bird with a very pale ice-blue colour, made lighter still by a heavy coat of feather powder. There are six wing patterns, and every pattern comes clean-legged or muffed. The breed comes from Saxony, Silesia, Lusatia and southern Germany.
Archangel
The Archangel is a show pigeon known for the metallic sheen of its copper or bronze body against dark wings. In the UK the name is used for the black-and-copper birds; in Germany the breed is called the Gimpeltaube. Its origin is not documented, but it is generally placed in the Balkans, with much of the later colour work done in Germany. It is a small to medium exhibition bird.
Lahore
The Lahore is a large, broad fancy pigeon named after the city of Lahore, in present-day Pakistan. On the American Lahore Club standard the bird stands about 10.5 inches (27 cm) tall, with a white body and tail, a coloured head, neck and entire wing, a pinkish-white beak and feathered feet. It is kept mainly as a show bird and pet.
Modena
The Modena is an Italian exhibition pigeon from the city of the same name in northern Italy. Breed histories say the older Modena was a small, slim bird flown in competitive flock-flying contests; the modern show Modena is a different, more compact type. Claims that the line goes back to ancient Rome are hard to prove. It is widely kept, comes in many colours and markings, including the gazzi pattern, and is often recommended to beginners because it is easy to breed and even-tempered.
Thuringian Shield
The Thuringian Shield, or Thüringer White Shield, is a German colour pigeon bred for a clean wing shield against a contrasting body. It belongs to the large family of Central European colour and field pigeons and is kept for exhibition.
Syrian and Middle Eastern breeds
The NPA keeps a separate group for Syrian breeds, and another for other Middle Eastern types. A few of the older, widely kept breeds from that region are listed below.
Damascene
The Damascene, also called the Istanbullu and, in the United States, often the Mahomet, is an old breed known for a bluish-grey body, a checkered wing and large, dark eyes. It is believed to have originated around Damascus, though Turkey and Persia are also mentioned in older books. Francis Willughby’s Ornithology, published in English in 1678, refers to the bird as Mahomet. It is kept as a flying and exhibition pigeon.
Dewlap
Dewlap pigeons come from the Middle East and are named for the flap of skin that runs from the beak down the throat. The dewlap is a form of caruncle, like the wattle of some other birds, and is part of the breed’s display. They are kept as flying and show birds. The name refers to this group of domestic pigeons, not to a wild species.
White release doves
A white pigeon sold as a release dove is usually a white domestic rock pigeon, often a white homing pigeon, rather than a wild dove. White birds have been kept for a very long time, but the birds used at weddings and funerals are bred for that work, or are white homers. Whether mass releases are kind to the birds is a separate question; see dove releases: are they cruel?.
Welfare and breed choice
A short beak, heavy feathering on the feet, a very large crop, or a body so heavy that the bird barely flies can all bring practical problems. Short-faced owls may struggle to feed their own squabs. The heaviest utility breeds need space on the floor, not a life built around long flight. Parlor Rollers generally cannot fly, so they need ground space and careful management of the rolling itself. If you are choosing a breed, ask breeders and rescues about health and husbandry as well as looks. For everyday care, see pigeons as pets.
How to identify a pigeon you’ve seen
- Look at size, neck markings, eye colour and the wing in flight.
- Note where you are. In the UK a wild bird is likely to be one of the five species above. In North America a slim, long-tailed dove in a garden is often a mourning dove; a grey bird on a city ledge is usually a feral pigeon almost anywhere in the world.
- A ring on the leg means a kept bird, often a racer (see what to do if you find a racing pigeon).
- For a wider set of photographs, see pictures of pigeons and doves.
FAQ
How many types of pigeons are there?
It depends what you mean by “type”. There are 344 known species in the pigeon and dove family, 13 of them extinct, according to our dove and pigeon guide. On top of that, breeders have produced more than 175 domestic breeds from a single species, the rock dove, and the NPA standard lists a still larger catalogue.
What is the difference between a pigeon breed and a pigeon species?
A species is a wild form, such as the woodpigeon or the Nicobar pigeon. A breed is a domestic variety of the rock dove, such as a King or a Jacobin, produced by selective breeding. The two are easy to mix up in casual lists, but they are not the same thing.
What is the most common type of pigeon?
Worldwide, the feral pigeon. In the UK countryside, the woodpigeon.
What is the rarest pigeon?
Several living species are in serious trouble. The tooth-billed pigeon of Samoa is Critically Endangered. The black-naped pheasant pigeon, known only from Fergusson Island, went unrecorded for more than a century and is also listed as Critically Endangered. The silvery pigeon was feared extinct for decades and remains extremely rare. Others, including the passenger pigeon and the Choiseul pigeon, are already gone. See are pigeons endangered?.
What is the largest pigeon?
Among living wild species, the crowned pigeons of New Guinea, including the Victoria crowned pigeon, and the Notou of New Caledonia, are among the largest. Among domestic breeds, heavy utility birds such as the Giant Runt and the Hungarian Giant House pigeon can weigh around a kilogram or more.
What is the smallest type of pigeon?
Among wild doves in this list, the diamond dove is one of the smallest, at 19 to 24 cm and around 33 g. Among domestic breeds, toy owl and frill types such as the African Owl and the Valencian Figurita are at the small end of the show bench. LafeberVet (opens in new tab) gives a weight range of 150 to 180 g for toy breeds such as the African Owl, against more than 1,400 g in the American Giant Runt.
Are all domestic pigeons the same species?
Almost all of the fancy, racing and utility breeds in this list are one species, the rock dove, Columba livia. Some pet doves, including the diamond dove and the Barbary or ringneck dove, are other species that have been brought into captivity.
Which pigeon breeds are kept for meat?
The classic utility breeds are the King, Carneau, French Mondain and Giant Runt, along with related heavy breeds such as the Strasser. Young pigeons raised for meat are called squabs. See what pigeons you can eat.
Why do some pigeons somersault in the air?
The behaviour was selected in rollers and tumblers. It has a genetic basis and can be so exaggerated in some strains that birds need to be managed carefully. Birmingham Rollers roll in the air and keep flying. Parlor Rollers somersault along the ground, and adults generally cannot fly. See why tumbler pigeons tumble.
Sources
The identification notes for UK species follow the RSPB guide to pigeons and doves (opens in new tab), the RSPB rock dove and feral pigeon page (opens in new tab) and the RSPB turtle dove page (opens in new tab). Breed numbers and the simple utility, fancy and flying split follow extension.org’s article on raising pigeons (opens in new tab) and the Oregon State University 4-H Pigeon and Dove Project (opens in new tab). Breed groups follow the National Pigeon Association list of breeds in its standard (opens in new tab). Toy and giant breed weights in the FAQ follow LafeberVet’s account of the order Columbiformes (opens in new tab). Woodpigeon and stock dove figures in our linked species guides come from BTO BirdFacts (opens in new tab).
Last updated 10 November 2026 · Types