How many pigeons live outdoors and at home: average duration

Pigeons are birds that inhabit all continents of the earth, except for Antarctica. They often settle next to a person and seem to be familiar to us from childhood. However, if you look, very few people can answer simple questions related to these birds. For example, not everyone knows what their chicks look like or how many years pigeons live. The life expectancy of birds will be discussed further.

How long do pigeons live?

The answer to this question depends on many factors. Life expectancy is affected by:

food;
breed of bird;
her living conditions.

The life of wild pigeons living far from civilization is shorter than that of their counterparts who settled next to humans. Birds living in a dovecote or at home usually become long-lived among these birds.

In the wild

In nature, pigeons settle on rocks, in forests, in mountains, on sheer banks of rivers. On average, wild pigeons live for about 5-8 years. Long-livers among wild birds can live up to 10 years. Many of them die from predation, fall ill, or suffer from lack of food and clean water.

These birds are heat-loving species, so the birds that settled in the southern regions of our country live longer than those who settled in the north. Pigeon species living in Asia and Africa can also count on a long life, if they are not caught for tasty meat or beautiful plumage, they do not suffer from the spread of infectious diseases, they do not die by drinking dirty water.

Street pigeons are habitual human neighbors, they are not wild in the full sense, they are accustomed to easily find food in squares and squares, near food industry enterprises, canteens and cafes, in city garbage dumps.

In the city, birds settle under the roofs of buildings, they suffer less from dampness and cold, have access to good quality water (clean city ponds, fountains, outdoor pools), so they live longer than their wild counterparts. Of course, city birds can become a victim of a cat or dog, but this does not happen too often. In the wild, a city pigeon can live 10-15 years.

At home

The pigeons that were lucky enough to be at home were even luckier.Having a varied balanced diet, enough vitamins and minerals, not suffering from cold and dampness in winter, and from heat in summer, they live more than 2 times longer than their wild counterparts.

Clean drinking water, vaccinations, systematic veterinary supervision extend the life of pigeons to 18-20 years. Of course, there are risks here too: a fighting pigeon can crash due to the characteristics of the flight or fall victim to an outbreak of infection, but this is very rare. Birds living in cages in an apartment will suffer, perhaps from loneliness or overeating. In such comfortable conditions, a pigeon, on average, is able to live 18-25 years. After 10-12 years, pigeons are considered old, they are not capable of reproduction.

What can affect life expectancy?

So, the life expectancy of pigeons is affected by the climate in the habitat, the availability of food supply and water. With an abundance of natural enemies (predators, a person who hunts for birds), one should not count on the long life of birds.

Wild species suffer from close proximity to humans. They have to migrate away from their homes or change their habits, mastering a new environment for themselves.

In areas with an unfavorable epidemiological situation, where there are a lot of landfills, garbage, waste lying around, especially in hot climates, pigeons often become victims of various infections or disease carriers. In this case, the birds become dangerous for pets and people.

Water is often a source of danger for birds. In the absence of a clean flowing source, birds have to drink from puddles, stagnant reservoirs. The presence of various intestinal infections in the water provokes the infection of birds, which transmit the disease to each other, worsening the situation.

How to determine the age of a bird?

It is impossible to accurately determine the age of birds. In the life of birds, there are 2 periods when it is easier to do this. Easily distinguished from other feathered juveniles and older birds.

Important: for domestic pigeons, to determine their exact age, after they are born, they put a ring on their paw with data on the time and place of birth of the bird, and track the migration of birds using the rings.

Chicks under one month of age are covered, interspersed with feathers, with yellow fluff. They are smaller in size, they emit not cooing, but squeaking. The beak of the chicks is soft, thin and long, with a small dark cere. The eyelids are thin and almost transparent. At 3-4 months, the beak hardens, expands, the cere on it brightens. The eyes become yellow or orange. At 5 months, the bird reaches puberty. Birds begin to be interested in the opposite sex.

At 6-7 months, pigeons molt for the first time. In older pigeons, the paws are less intensely colored; after 5 years of life, the pigment gradually fades. Adult birds have a dense white eyelid.

Record times

At home, the record life expectancy for pigeons is 35 years, however, this is unconfirmed data. A bird over 25 years old lives in England today. Her mistress picked up a chick on the street, all her life the dove lived with her mistress. Care, good nutrition and he alth care of birds significantly increase their lifespan.

Breeders and pigeon lovers in love with their hobby spend a lot of effort on breeding birds with improved characteristics, disease resistance, strong immunity. This affects the life span of birds, it increases.

During the huge period of time that pigeons live next to a person, they have learned to take advantage of such a neighborhood.That is why there are less and less wild pigeons, and more and more feathered inhabitants of cities and towns. The task of people is to save species that eschew humans, because it is especially difficult for them in a rapidly changing world.