Pigeons are birds that inhabit all continents of the earth except Antarctica. They often settle next to humans and seem to be closely known to us since childhood. However, if you look closely, 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 many years do pigeons live?
The answer to this question depends on many factors. Life expectancy is affected by:
- nutrition;
- bird breed;
- her living conditions.
The life of wild pigeons living far from civilization is shorter than that of their counterparts who settled near humans. Birds living in a dovecote or at home usually become the longest-living birds among these birds.
In the wild
In nature, pigeons settle on rocks, in forests, in mountains, on steep banks of rivers. On average, wild pigeons live about 5-8 years. Long-livers among wild birds can live up to 10 years. Many of them die due to attacks by predators, fall ill, or suffer from lack of food and clean water.
These birds are heat-loving species, so birds that settled in the southern regions of our country live longer than those that settled in the north. Types of pigeonsliving 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, or die from drinking dirty water.
Street pigeons, habitual neighbors of humans, are not wild in the full sense; they are accustomed to easily finding food in squares and parks, next to food industry enterprises, canteens and cafes, and in city garbage dumps.
In the city, birds live 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 victims 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 lucky enough to find themselves at home are even luckier.Having a varied, balanced diet, enough vitamins and minerals, without suffering from cold and dampness in winter and heat in summer, they live more than 2 times longer than their wild counterparts.
Clean drinking water, vaccinations, and 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 nature of its 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, can live 18-25 years. After 10-12 years, pigeons are considered old and are not capable of reproduction.
What can affect lifespan?
So, the life expectancy of pigeons is influenced by the climate in the area where they live, the availability of food and water. With an abundance of natural enemies (predators, humans hunting birds), one should not count on the long life of birds.
In areas with an unfavorable epidemiological situation, where there are a lot of landfills, garbage, and waste lying around, especially in hot climates, pigeons often become victims of various infections or carriers of diseases. In this case, the birds become dangerous to domestic animals and people.
Water often becomes a source of danger for birds. In the absence of a clean flowing source, birds have to drink from puddles and stagnant bodies of water. The presence of various intestinal infections in water provokes 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. There are 2 periods in the life of birds when this is easier to do. It is easy to distinguish young birds and older birds from other birds.
Important: for domestic pigeons, to determine their exact age, after birth, they put a ring on their paw with information about the time and place of birth of the bird; the migration of birds is tracked using the rings.
Chicks under one month of age are covered, interspersed with feathers, with yellow down. They are smaller in size and do not make cooing noises, but squeaking sounds. The beak of the chicks is soft, thin and long, with a small dark wax. The eyelids are thin and almost transparent. At 3-4 months, the beak hardens, expands, and the wax on it becomes lighter. 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 old pigeons, the feet are less intensely colored; after 5 years of life, the pigment gradually becomes discolored. Adult birds have a dense white eyelid.
Record timing
At home, the life expectancy record for pigeons is 35 years, however, this is unconfirmed data. The bird, over 25 years old, now lives in England. Its owner picked up the chick on the street; the pigeon lived with its owner all its life. Care, good nutrition and health care for birds significantly increase their life expectancy.
Breeders and passionate pigeon keepers spend a lot of effort on breeding birds with improved characteristics, disease resistance, and strong immunity. This affects the lifespan of birds, it increases.
Over the huge period of time that pigeons live next to humans, they have learned to take advantage of such proximity. That is why there are fewer and fewer wild pigeons, and more and more feathered inhabitants of cities and towns. The task of people is to preserve species that shun humans, because it is especially difficult for them in a rapidly changing world.
