Latest Columbidae Stories
PIGEON FORGE, Tenn., Sept. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- A family that never has experienced a traditional vacation has a date circled for a trip to the Great Smoky Mountains because legions of friends rallied around them in the Pigeon Forge Department of Tourism "Taking Vacation Back" campaign. John and Leila Waltman of Pelion, S.C., and their three children - one with severe medical problems - also won $15,000 to help with a year's mortgage payments. "Taking Vacation Back," which supported family...
NEW YORK, March 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Building on the success of the network's rebrand and content transformation, Animal Planet has announced a new show with Mike Tyson, currently known as TAKING ON TYSON, where the former heavyweight champion of the world will take audiences inside the intensely competitive and bizarrely fascinating world of pigeon racing. Slated to film this spring in New York City and debut in early 2011, the show will give audiences an insider's look at pigeon rearing...
Investigators said a four-alarm brush fire in San Jose, Calif., may have been caused by a pigeon perched on a high-voltage power line.Jennifer Zerwer, spokeswoman for Pacific Gas & Electric, said utility crews at the site of the fire, which blackened about 15 acres Wednesday in the city's Communications Hill area, discovered a downed 12-kilovolt power line and the charred remains of a pigeon at the spot where the fire is believed to have started, the San Jose Mercury News reported...
Researchers have discovered that an Australian pigeon species can alert other birds of danger with a "whistle" caused by flapping its wings when the bird takes off in alarm, AFP reported.Experts have documented the pigeon (Ocyphaps lophotes) for its well known metallic-sounding whistle that it makes when it flies from danger, but until now biologists had never analyzed the sound or explored whether it may have a use.However, two biologists from Australian National University in...
Police in Venice, Italy, say a man was fined for selling birdseed to tourists so they could feed the city's pigeons, a practice outlawed last year. Authorities said the 35-year-old Sicilian man had several kilos of birdseed and was offering it to tourists in exchange for a donation so they could have their pictures taken feeding the city's pigeons, ANSA reported Wednesday. Seven tourists who had purchased birdseed from the man got written warnings, police said. People keep feeding the...
An antique worker says four of the albino ringtail doves found in a tree in New York will be able to stay at Vanderbilt Mansion until they recover. Stefanie Rinza, managing director at Carlton Hobbs antiques, said the site will serve as a temporary home for four of the dozens of doves found hungry and tired in Flushing Meadow Park last weekend, the New York Post said Thursday. We really love them. We're going to look after them until they're well, Rinza said. They're hungry and they're...
A baby parrot decided it liked Philadelphia so much it fled the city's zoo to join a flock of pigeons out to see the town, zoo officials say. Now, after an exhaustive search, the Philadelphia Zoo is assuming the 6-month-old Sun Conure has left the zoo grounds and is seeing the local sights, the Philadelphia Daily News reported Saturday. The parrot was one of four Sun Conures who were performing as part of zoo's Festival of Flight show. Zoo spokesman Bill Larson said it must have gotten...
Pigeons could be art critics yet, according to a new study1 which shows that like humans, pigeons can be trained to tell the difference between "˜good' and "˜bad' paintings. According to Professor Shigeru Watanabe from Keio University in Japan, pigeons use both color and pattern cues to judge the paintings' beauty as defined by humans, as well as their texture. Professor Watanabe's work has just been published online in Springer's journal, Animal Cognition.The concept of beauty is based...
A new Japanese study finds that pigeons have "advanced perceptive abilities" which allow them to recognize beauty in the same way humans do.The month-long, government-funded study found that the birds were able to differentiate "good" paintings from "bad" ones.The research team from Tokyo's Keio University had conducted a previous study that found the birds were able to distinguish between a Picasso and a Monet. In the current study, they wanted to see whether the pigeons actually had a...
Using a "neurologger" specially designed to record the brain activity of pigeons in flight, researchers reporting online on June 25th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, have gained new insight into what goes through the birds' minds as they fly over familiar terrain. The study is the first to simultaneously record electrical brain activity integrated with large-scale navigational movements of free-flying birds, according to the researchers."We've successfully applied...
Latest Columbidae Reference Libraries
The Pink Pigeon (Columba mayeri) is a species of bird of the Columbidae family, which includes doves and pigeons. It is endemic to Mauritius and is very rare. It is found only on the Mascarene Island of Mauritius. Once being found on the larger Reunion Island, it is now extinct there. It is found in patches of forest in the National Park area to the southwest, and in the nature reserve Ile aux Aigrettes off the southeast coast of Mauritius. There are plans to release some individuals in the...
he Topknot Pigeon (Lopholaimus antarcticus) is a species of bird native to Australia. It is often spotted over rainforests and valleys, but can also be found around palm trees, figs, eucalyptus forests and other woodlands. They are completely arboreal. They mostly occur from Cape York in Queensland to the South Coast of New South Wales near the coast but have been seen as south as Tasmania and the Gippsland Lakes in Victoria, depending on food availability. Though this species is normally...
The Ruddy Ground Dove (Columbina talpacoti), is a small New World tropical dove. It is a resident breeder from Mexico south to Peru, Brazil and Paraguay, and northern Argentina, and on Trinidad and Tobago. Individual birds can sometimes be seen in southwestern USA, from southern Texas to southernmost California, primarily during the winter months. Ruddy Ground Doves are small short-tailed pigeons, 6.75 inches long with a weight normally about 1.7 ounces. Adult males have a pale gray head...
The Common Ground Dove (Columbina passerina), is a small New World tropical dove. It is a resident breeder from Bermuda, through the south most USA, Mexico and the Caribbean, to South America, and is found as far south as northern Brazil. Common Ground Doves are tiny short-tailed pigeons at 6.75 inches. Their weight is normally about 1 ounce. Adult birds have gray-brown back and upper wing plumage, with black spotting on their wing coverts. They have a scaly appearance to the breast and...
The Zenaida Dove (Zenaida aurita), is a member of the bird family Columbidae, which includes doves and pigeons. The Zenaida Dove breeds throughout the West Indies and the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula. It was reported by Audubon to breed in the Florida Keys, but there are only three verifiable records from Florida. This bird is found in a range of open and semi-open habitats. The bird is resident and abundant over much of its range. The Zenaida Dove is approximately 11 to 12 inches in...
