Size: The rock dove is 29 to 37 cm long with a 62 to 72 cm wingspan. Weight ranges from 238–380 g.

Vocalisations: The call is a soft, slightly wavering, coo. Non-vocal sounds include a loud flapping noise at take-off, feet stomping, hisses, and beak snapping.

Habitat: Wild pigeons reside in rock formations and cliff faces, settling in crevices to nest. They nest communally, often forming large colonies of many hundreds of individuals. Human structures provide an excellent imitation of cliff structures, making rock doves very common around human habitation. Multistorey blocks, farms, abandoned buildings, and other human structures with ample crevices are conducive to rock dove nesting. Thus, the modern range of the rock dove is due in large part to humans.

Behaviour: Rock doves are omnivorous, but prefer plant matter: chiefly fruits and grains. Additional food is also usually available from waste bins, tourists or residents who feed bird seed to pigeons for reasons such as empathy, fun, tradition and as a means for social interaction. Pigeons feed on the ground in flocks or individually. The rock dove breeds at any time of the year, but peak times are spring and summer. Courtship rituals can be observed in urban parks at any time of the year. The male on the ground or rooftops puffs up the feathers on his neck to appear larger and thereby impress or attract attention. The nest is a flimsy platform of straw and sticks, laid on a ledge, under cover, often on the window ledges of buildings. Two white eggs are laid.

Interesting facts: Pigeons can be taught relatively complex actions and response sequences, and can learn to make responses in different sequences. Pigeons can remember large numbers of individual images for a long time, e.g., hundreds of images for periods of several years. In addition, pigeons have unusual, perhaps unique, abilities to learn routes back to their home from long distances. The domestic pigeon (Columba livia domestica, which includes about 1,000 different breeds) descended from this species.

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