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Bird of the Month The Rock Pigeon, also known as "rock dove" or just "pigeon," is the world's oldest domesticated bird with records dating back 5,000 years. The domestic pigeon now includes about 1,000 different breeds, all descended from wild Rock Pigeons. Escaped domestic pigeons have bred and their offspring, "feral pigeons," look similar to wild Rock Pigeons and have spread around the world. Wild Rock Pigeons are pale grey with two black bars on each wing. The wild Rock Pigeon's original range is Europe, North Africa, and western Asia, where they roosted and nested in cliffs and rock ledges in open and semi-open habitats. Feral (escaped domestic) pigeons quickly adapted to buildings instead of cliffs and became common in Old World cities. They were carried to the New World aboard European ships between 1603 and 1607 and have since spread across the New World from southern Alaska and Canada southward through the rest of North America and all of South America. Rock Pigeons are common in cities, suburbs, parks, and agricultural areas throughout California, including Beaumont, but they are uncommon at Four Seasons, so Gerrie Karczynski's sighting of a pair on a Four Seasons rooftop during our Oct. 1 bird walk was a pleasant surprise! ~ Steve Edelman, steve.h.edelman@gmail.com Birding CLUB Our bird walk on Sept. 17 was perfectly timed, inadvertently, between the departure of our summer birds and arrival of winter birds; thus, our morning walk set a new record for the fewest number of birds, yielding only 12 species! Later in the day, Tina Canon, Gerrie Karczynski, Linda Miller, and I spotted seven additional species, bringing the day's species total to 19. Highlights included a Phainopepla, a Great Horned Owl, and a California Thrasher. Winter birds started arriving on Sept. 20 with the arrival of our first White-crowned Sparrows, and on the following day with the arrival of our first Orange-crowned Warblers. During our bird walk on Oct. 1, there was a nice variety of birds, indicative of the changing season, and we finished the morning with 22 species. Later in the day, Barbara Wasco, Gerrie Karczynski, and I spotted eight additional species, bringing the day's species total to 30, our highest count since April! Highlights included a Downy Woodpecker, Rock Pigeons, a kettle of Turkey Vultures, and a flyover flock of Canada Geese. FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | NOVEMBER 2022 39 Rock Pigeon photographed on a Four Seasons rooftop by Gerrie Karczynski on Oct. 1. This is a feral pigeon, descended from domestic pigeons, and it has the pale grey body and two black wing bars (visible in this photo) of wild Rock Pigeons. Examples of the more than 1,000 breeds of domestic pigeons, all of which arose by selective breeding of Rock Pigeons. Photo by Sydney Stringham The Birding Club on Trail B on Oct. 1 in the afterglow of a sighting of a Downy Woodpecker

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