Common wood pigeon

Details

Introduction: 1) Wood pigeon is a common species, but there are relatively few ring dates. The Vogeltrekatlas lists about 15,000 ring catches for wood pigeon. Compared to, for example, blackbird (over 400,000) and blackcap (almost 600,000), this does not seem to be entirely explained by differences in population size, 2) The species is extensively hunted in Europe, 3) The number of ringed birds seems to be decreasing over the last decade.

Research questions: 1) survival, also of juveniles vs. adults. With this relatively large species, we can also monitor this nicely over time 2) dispersal of young, 3) site fidelity of adults, 4) role of wood pigeons in zoonotic diseases.

Research locations: Wood pigeons are colourringed in bird sanctuaries in The Hague, Utrecht and Amsterdam. In addition, wood pigeons are also caught at the bird ringing stations in Meijendel and De Haar (near Utrecht). Finally, within this project wood pigeons are colour ringed in the Vogelwijk in The Hague.