Size: Length; 26cm. Weight; 166g.

Habitat and distribution: Mauritania and Senegambia through Mali, Niger, Chad and Sudan to West Ethiopia. Dry scrub or open desert, sandy riverbeds and farmland.

Age: 12 years.

Groups and breeding: Nest is frail, open cup in tree or bush. Lay 2 eggs, incubation is shared by both sexes and lasts for 14 days.

Diet: Seeds from grasses and plants, other vegetable matter and some insects

• This species has been domesticated for 2000 to 3000 years.
• They are very steady birds, and used by many zoological collections as foster parents for other pigeon species. They will happily incubate eggs and rear squabs from other pigeon species. At Cotswold Wildlife Park they have been used to foster Pink Pigeons, Bleeding Heart Pigeons, Wonga and Crested Pigeons.
• They are one of the 309 species which form the Columbidae family (pigeons and doves).
• The now extinct Dodo was a member of the pigeon family.
• Flight muscles in pigeons tend to be larger in comparison with other bird groups. Their flight muscles may make up to 44 per cent. of the bird’s body weight!
• There are no differences between pigeons and doves other than size.
• Pigeons produce a crop milk to feed their chicks.
• Pigeons are excellent navigators and use both the magnetic field of the planet and the position of the sun to find their way.