Pigeons


 * Color Variations**



Park pigeons are descended from the wild rock dove. The fact that they come in many different colors is because their ancestors have been domesticated and bred for different characteristics. Some pigeon fanciers, people who especially like pigeons, can identify up to 28 different color tupes. Most of these include beautiful iridescence neck feathers. Cornell University's Project PigeonWatch groups pigeon colors into seven categories.
 * Blue Bar
 * Red Bar
 * Checker
 * Red
 * Spread
 * White
 * Pied


 * [[image:ggpig_bluebar.jpg align="left"]]Blue-bar:** This is the color and pattern of the original wild pigeons from Europe, Asia, and Africa. It is called blue-bar, even though these birds are not really blue. Blue-bars generally have a dark head, neck, and chest with some iridescence; a light-gray breast and belly; a black band at the end of the tail; and two black stripes or bars on each wing. In populations in the countryside there are a predominance of this color pattern while in the towns and cities there is a greater variety color patterns.


 * [[image:ggpig_redbar.jpg align="left"]]Red-bar:** Some pigeons have the same basic pattern as blue-bars but these birds have a general reddish appearance. The black areas of the blue bar are replaced with a dark, rusty-red, or brown color. Since these birds are similar to the blue bar color pattern they are called red-bars.


 * [[image:ggpig_bluechecker.jpg align="left"]]Blue** **Checker:** Pigeons that have a patterns on their wings similar to the bird in this photograph are called checkers. The wing bars are usually wider than the blue bar. There is considerable variation, with pigeons that range from very light gray with only a few black checks, to very dark with only some light-gray still showing. This pattern is the most common in the pigeons found in London. Red Checkers can be found but I do not have any photos of these birds at the present.


 * [[image:ggpig_red.jpg align="left"]]Red:** Pigeons that have a dark red or rusty brown color over most of or all of their body, they are called reds. Red colors are usually infrequent in pigeons except where they have been derived from homing pigeons that were released.


 * [[image:ggpig_spread.jpg align="left"]]Spread:** The spread or black color pattern ranges from a black slate color to a slate back color and usually covers the entire body except for the metallic feathers on the neck. This color pattern includes black wing and tail bars similar to the blue bar.


 * [[image:ggpig_white.jpg align="left"]]White:** These birds are solid white. Pure white birds usually only stay white in the first generation after release. Some white pigeons are albinos, with a pink beak, pink legs, and red eyes. The bird here may have been a descendant of a pure white bird, but since it now has some color it should be classified as a pied.


 * [[image:ggpig_pied.jpg align="left"]]Pied:** When pigeons of any color have white patches in various locations on their body they are called pieds. The pigeon in the photograph has white wing feathers but pieds may have white tails or white patches on their heads.

Scientific importance
Pigeon breeding was very popular in Victorian England, as it still is in some parts, and it became evident that pigeons can be bred to produce the most astonishing variety of shapes. Charles Darwin carefully observed the differences in the various types of pigeon, counting their feathers and noting coloration and habits. When their use in life had been fulfilled, he studied their inward parts, counting vertebrae and ribs and measuring bones. He found that there were seven basic varieties of pigeon, but since every combination of cross between varieties was fertile, he had to conclude from the understanding of the day that they were all variants within a single species. This may have been somewhat disappointing since it implied that the finches were almost certainly still a single species. Evidence that one species could become another -- that is, that the barrier of biblical fixity could be broken -- had not been provided. Writing fourteen years after the publication of the Origin Darwin confessed to his friend Bentham:

In fact the belief in Natural Selection must at present be grounded entirely on general considerations [faith?]... When we descend to details, we can [not] prove that no one species has changed... nor can we prove that the supposed changes are beneficial, which is the groundwork of the theory. Nor can we explain why some species have changed and others have not" (F. Darwin 1887, 3:25).

To this day, the situation is no different since much of what is offered as evidence has been provided by simply expanding the definition.

Darwin correctly drew the conclusion that they had all descended from the common rock pigeon because the off-spring would often revert back to the rock pigeon's characteristics. He was not familiar with the genetic theory as it is known today so was unaware of the reason, but the reversion he observed was well known among animal breeders and represented the limits to variation possible within a species. In practical terms, this means that there are definite built-in limits to, for example, the size of dogs or the running ability of race-horses, etc., and Darwin found the limits of fancy shape possible within the pigeon species.

Having recognized that in the breeding experiments variants can only go to certain limits, it then occurred to him that under natural conditions over much longer periods of time, the species barrier might be broken. The notion could neither be proved nor disproved; Darwin recognized this but suggested that perhaps evidence could be found in the fossil record (Darwin 1859, 172, 279).