Rock Dove? No. Common Pigeon? No. Feral Pigeon... no, but a Rural Pigeon !

Rock Dove, Common Pigeon, Domestic Pigeon, Feral Pigeon (Columba livia) - a beloved child has a lot of names. Anyway, what comes to the name Common Pigeon, here in Valkeakoski it's not anymore common, for example Common Woodpigeon (Columba palumbus) is much more common. It used to be common earlier, when big flocks lived in factory areas. But nowadays factories have managed to expel them, unfortunately, as I really enjoyed watching how Northern Goshawks (Accipiter gentilis) hunted pigeons. Often the hawks lurked in the top of very high factory pipes, in the height of over 100 meters. From there they dived at the pigeons, and often they were very succesfull. Very spectacular shows indeed.

Rock Doveis also a bad name for this bird in this part of world, because it does not live on rocks here. How about Feral Pigeon then ? Well, this bird was never domestic animal here, so it can not be "feral". But definately it could be "Urban Pigeon" in most parts of the world - and here in Valkeakoski it is "Rural Pigeon", as the biggest population lives in countryside.

This particular pigeon was sitting on the top of the barn in Saarioispuoli yesterday. I've never noticed earlier that this bird could be so handsome. Don't know about the sex of this individual, but somehow it gives a very "male look".