Listen to the call of a wood pigeon

Listen to the call of a feral pigeon

Feral pigeons, the defilers of Nelson’s column and virtually every other statue of the great and the good, are being challenged for urban supremacy by their country cousins.

Woodpigeon numbers have risen so dramatically over the past decade that they now outnumber feral pigeons even in their big city strongholds.

The woodpigeons are supposedly country birds but have been shouldering their way into suburbia and city centres, where they have proved to be perfectly at home.

They have been spotted in Trafalgar Square, w h e r e until now the feral pigeon has so ruled the roost that it has been treated as a pest almost as unwelcome as rats.

Numbers have risen by 20 per cent in the past ten years but the biggest spread has taken place in cities, and in London they now outnumber ferals by almost two to one. Much of the population expansion has been difficult to detect because, whereas ferals tend to congregate in large groups, woodpigeons are often seen in pairs.

London, according to the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), is the “undisputed capital of the feral pigeon” yet it was seen in just 27 per cent of gardens whereas the woodpigeon was spotted in 46 per cent.

The pattern is repeated in other cities such as Manchester, where ferals were present in 34 per cent of gardens compared with 64 per cent for woodpigeons. In Nottingham the figures were 47 per cent for ferals and 74 per cent for woodpigeons, 22 per cent and 80 per cent in Bristol, and 22 per cent and 78 per cent in York.

“Take a look around Trafalgar Square and you will still see these multiplumaged town pigeons, but among them their larger country cousin the woodpigeon, with its white neck collar and white wing flashes, is slowly taking over,” said Paul Stancliffe, of the BTO.

Ten years ago the woodpigeon wasn’t even in the top ten of garden birds but it has risen up the rankings to become the fourth most-common. Last year it was estimated that there were three million breeding pairs of woodpigeons in Britain and the total population this winter is estimated at ten million. The estimate for ferals is 100,000 to 250,000 breeding pairs.

“It is amazing how quickly this bird of farm and woodland has become a familiar sight on the streets and pavements of some of our busiest towns and cities,” Mr Stancliffe added. The encroachment has been attributed largely to householders who leave out food, and the introduction of fir trees to gardens. The survey, led by the BTO and CJ Wildbird Foods, was carried out by 16,500 volunteers providing weekly data on sightings.

All the coos

— Woodpigeons are the largest members in Britain of the pigeon and dove family

— The woodpigeon’s cooing has five notes, which some people think of as saying “Whoo cooks for – you, oh”. Other renderings include: “My tooe huurts, Betsyy”

Source: RSPB; Times database

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