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![](https://www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/ROPI_pair_male_bows_and_coos_courtship_wiki.jpg)
28 March 2024
Most birds have a breeding season for just a few months per 12 months in spring and summer time however rock pigeons, like people, breed again and again all 12 months lengthy if there’s sufficient meals to maintain their households. You may inform after they’re beginning a brand new household as a result of they court docket conspicuously.
Birds of the World’s rock pigeon account, quoted within the listing under, explains the steps of courtship that escalate to the second of copulation.
- [Courtship] Begins with bowing and cooing, during which male stands tall, inflates crop, followers tail, struts in circle, bows head and neck whereas giving show coo. That is repeated many occasions whereas circling and shifting across the feminine.
- Hetero-preening (“nibbling”) follows, male first, feminine later.
![](https://www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/ROPI_pair_allo-preening_courtship_wiki.jpg)
- [Billing:] Feminine in the end solicits feeding, male seems to regurgitate seed or liquid. Feminine might repeat …
![](https://www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/ROPI_pair_billing_courtship_1024x1024_wiki.jpg)
- … adopted by a crouch with wings half raised. Male then mounts, balances with flapping wings whereas vents are opposed 1–2 seconds for sperm switch.
![](https://www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/ROPI_pair_mating_wiki.jpg)
After mating the male might do a submit copulatory show. Typically they fly collectively.
- Submit-copulatory show features a few steps whereas standing tall, and sometimes a show flight, often by the male, during which wings are clapped collectively on an exaggerated upstroke for 3–5 wingbeats. Fowl flies out to a different perch, 40–80 m distant, clapping wings a minimum of as soon as and gliding with wings in a “V” between bouts of clapping
![Two rock pigeons flying (photo from Shutterstock)](https://www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/ROPI_twoflying_64214764_rsz_shutterstock.jpg)
When you’re observing pigeon courtship there’s another factor to note. The female and male shouldn’t have the identical plumage patterns as a result of they select mates that don’t appear to be themselves.
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