News tagged with pigeons
More light shed on how pigeons navigate
(Phys.org) -- Pigeons are renowned for their ability to find their way home from a release point hundreds of miles away, but scientists have never fully understood how they are able to achieve the feat. Now ...
Apr 27, 2012 |
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Like monkeys, pigeons can put numbers in order
(PhysOrg.com) -- Pigeons are on par with primates in their numerical abilities, according to new University of Otago research appearing in the leading international journal Science.
Dec 22, 2011 |
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Study shows pigeons like to gamble
(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study of pigeons shows that, like human gamblers, they love to gamble on the off chance they will win big rather than taking a smaller, but more certain payout.
Oct 14, 2010 |
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Pigeons never forget a face
New research has shown that feral, untrained pigeons can recognise individual people and are not fooled by a change of clothes.
Jul 03, 2011 |
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Secrets of flocking revealed
Watching thousands of birds fly in a highly coordinated, yet leaderless, flock can be utterly baffling to humans. Now, new research is peeling back the layers of mystery to show how exactly they do it -- and ...
Oct 26, 2011 |
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How the 'street pigeon' got its fancy on
Pigeons display spectacular variations in their feathers, feet, beaks and other physical traits, but a new University of Utah study shows that visible traits don't always coincide with genetics: A bird from ...
Jan 19, 2012 |
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Evolutionary reasons for believing in luck
How far will you go to avoid bad luck? Do you avoid walking under ladders, carry lucky charms, or perhaps instead perform special rituals before important meetings or sporting events?
Jun 07, 2011 |
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Study finds pigeons use bodies to turn rather than wing force
(PhysOrg.com) -- In a rather surprising turn of events, it appears pigeons use their body to make sharp turns, rather than stronger wing strokes when flying. This bit of news comes from Ivo Ros of Harvard ...
Nov 29, 2011 |
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Auto-pilots need a birds-eye view
New research on how birds can fly so quickly and accurately through dense forests may lead to new developments in robotics and auto-pilots.
Jul 01, 2011 |
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Study shows how external ecological communities can affect the coevolution of hosts and their parasites
(PhysOrg.com) -- In a novel experiment running over three years, evolutionary biologists Christopher Harbison and Dale Clayton, both of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, sought to show that a certain ...
May 24, 2011 |
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The great Dodo weight debate
(PhysOrg.com) -- The Dodo (Raphus cucullatus), a pigeon type bird that went extinct over 300 years ago is raising debate these last few months on just how slender or plump it really was. When the Dodo bird w ...
Apr 18, 2011 |
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Research shows that some features of human face perception are not uniquely human
When it comes to picking a face out of a police lineup, would you guess that you would use some of the same processes a pigeon might use?
Apr 11, 2011 |
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Brain regions sleep more deeply when used more -- also in birds
(PhysOrg.com) -- When we are asleep, those regions of our brain that were particularly active during wakefulness sleep more deeply. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen, Germany ...
Jan 12, 2011 |
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Birds use right nostril to navigate
(PhysOrg.com) -- Pigeons rely mainly on their olfactory sense when they navigate. Young pigeons learn to recognize environmental odours carried by the winds into the loft and to use these odours to find their ...
Feb 03, 2011 |
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Carrier Pigeon Faster Than Broadband Internet
(PhysOrg.com) -- In South Africa, a carrier pigeon carrying a 4GB memory stick proved to be faster than the ADSL service from the country's biggest web firm, Telkom. Winston the pigeon took one hour and eight ...
Sep 11, 2009 |
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Columbidae
Pigeons and doves constitute the bird family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerines. In general terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably. In ornithological practice, there is a tendency for "dove" to be used for smaller species and "pigeon" for larger ones, but this is in no way consistently applied, and historically the common names for these birds involve a great deal of variation between the terms "dove" and "pigeon." This family occurs worldwide, but the greatest variety is in the Indomalaya and Australasia ecozones. Young doves and pigeons are called "squabs."
Pigeons and doves are stout-bodied birds with short necks, and have short slender bills with a fleshy cere. The species commonly referred to just as "pigeon" is the Feral Rock Pigeon, common in many cities.
Doves and pigeons build relatively flimsy nests from sticks and other debris, which may be placed in trees, on ledges or on the ground, depending on species. They lay one or two eggs, and both parents care for the young, which leave the nest after 7 to 28 days. Doves feed on seeds, fruit and plants. Unlike most other birds (but see flamingo), the doves and pigeons produce "crop milk", which is secreted by a sloughing of fluid-filled cells from the lining of the crop. Both sexes produce this highly nutritious substance to feed to the young.
For more information about Columbidae, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
