Rock Dove
Photo: william_stephens · CC BY 4.0

Doves and Pigeons

Rock Dove

Columba livia

LCLeast Concern
Family
Doves and Pigeons (Columbidae)
Order
Columbiformes

Overview

The rock dove (Columba livia), also known as the common pigeon or rock pigeon (but see also Petrophassa), is a member of the bird family Columbidae (doves and pigeons). In common usage, it is often simply referred to as the "pigeon", although the rock dove is the wild form of the bird; the pigeons familiar to most people are the domesticated forms of the wild rock dove.
Wild rock doves are uniformly pale grey with two black bars on each wing, with few differences being seen between males and females; i.e. they are not strongly sexually dimorphic.

Summary from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Range and habitat

Sources and further reading

Last updated September 29, 2026.