Researchers led by members of Oxford University's Department of Biology have found rare colonies of the wild ancestors of common domestic and feral pigeons. ‘Feral’ pigeons originate from escaped domestic birds and can be seen in towns and cities all over the world. These domestic pigeons are descended from wild Rock Doves, who nest in sea caves and mountainous areas. In fact, due to the interbreeding of feral pigeons and Rock Doves, and their resulting hybrids, many ornithologists believe that there are no truly wild Rock Doves left. ‘We identified feral pigeon ancestry in most of the Scottish and Irish Rock Dove populations we sampled, and there have been feral pigeons in Europe for hundreds of years.
