[SBB] more on Band-tailed Pigeons

[[[email protected]] (Mike Rogers)]

All,

I took Al's suggestion and looked at the Birds of North America Online Band-tailed Pigeon account (subscription only $40/year) and it states:

"Individuals travel long distances daily to feed and are readily attracted to grain fields and fruit orchards dispersed below the forested foothills where they nest."

"Feeds intermittently through day, usually in small flocks. Greatest foraging early morning, based on numbers appearing at bait sites (Braun 1976a). Feeds on 1 food source until source becomes exhausted, then moves to new site or food type."

"As with other columbids, squab fed crop milk, a curdlike substance formed in lobes of crops of both parents (Beams and Meyer 1931). "

"Squab fed 3 times daily first 5–7 d posthatch, from 12:00 to 15:00; thereafter, 1 or 2 feedings daily from 11:00 to 14:00 (n = 1 squab each; Neff and Niedrach 1946, Peeters 1962). Unclear whether female feeds squab before 20 d posthatch."

"Late in nestling stage, squab increasingly fed adult food as crop-milk production diminishes."

With so few feedings it does seem that long-distance foraging is easily possible.

Mike Rogers

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