Woodpigeons are interesting

Columba palumbus

Sorry about the photograph. My husband told me to try this lens out so I spent about half an hour trying to focus on stuff with a massively zoomy lens that is so dark it is hard even to find a woodpigeon standing on top of a greenhouse in the sun. Then when I upload the pictures and find them a bit fuzzy he says "yeah that lens is rubbish". So it is all his fault. :-D I made it sepia to try and disguise the fact that it is a bit rubbish. It didn't really work!

Known mostly for standing in trees and cooing noisily or for standing outside your back door then clattering loudly up your nose when you open it, nearly giving you a heart attack, woodpigeons are not as stupid as they look. The loud clattering is deliberate, a ploy to allow the bird to fly away while you are picking yourself back up off the ground. The birds huge chest contains powerful muscles which are needed to get it off the ground since they weigh over half a kilogram - a lot for a bird. A young pigeon is called a squab and the reason you never see baby ones is that they are fully grown before they leave the nest. They just tend to look a bit unkempt compare to their parents. Also - and I think this is quite cool - most birds need to scoop water into their beaks and tip their head back to let the water trickle down their throat. The woodpigeon can sook water up through its beak like a straw. Clever.