Congregation Among Columba livia

A Study of Microhabitat Usage and Morning Group Assembly in a

Population of Columba livia

Columba livia

• C. livia is more commonly known as the Rock Dove or Feral Pidgeon.

• It is a large very successfully urbanized species of the order Columbiformes.

• It is known to form colonies and forage in large groups.

Study Objectives

• The purpose of this study was to examine how concentration of individuals at 3rd St and Campbell Ave changes over the course of the day.

• My study was therefore designed to attempt to detect a preference for this location dependant upon the time of day.

Methods

• The number of Rock Doves on the stretch of electrical wires was recorded was recorded once every ten minutes from 6:00-8:00 AM and again from 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM.

• Once all the data was collected the Mean and Median numbers of Rock Doves at each time interval was determined along with Standard Deviation.

ResultsMean Values

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

706

:00

6:1

0

6:2

0

6:3

0

6:4

0

6:5

0

7:0

0

7:1

0

7:2

0

7:3

0

7:4

0

7:5

0

8:0

0

11

:00

11

:10

11

:20

11

:30

11

:40

11

:50

12

:00

Median Values

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

6:0

0

6:1

0

6:2

0

6:3

0

6:4

0

6:5

0

7:0

0

7:1

0

7:2

0

7:3

0

7:4

0

7:5

0

8:0

0

11:0

0

11:1

0

11:2

0

11:3

0

11:4

0

11:5

0

12:0

0

Conclusions

• Rock Doves favor the research site more between 6:10-7:20 AM, relative to the other times studied.

• Variation was extremely high from sampling to sampling.

• Early congregation appears to be supported although only marginally.

Discussion

• Why do Rock Doves congregate?– Predation– Mate Access– Warming– Vestigial Trait

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breeding habitat selection: Implications for the study of coloniality. Ecology. 79:2415–2428.

(3.) Darwin, Charles On the Origin of Species, PF Collier and Son, 1st Ed. pubilished 1859(4.) Fuller, Richard A.; Warren, Philip H.; Armsworth, Paul R.; Barbosa, Olga; Gaston, Kevin

J. Diversity & Distributions, Jan2008, Vol. 14 Issue 1, p131-137, 7p(5.) Gill Frank B., Ornithology 3rd Ed. copyright 2007, W. H. Freeman and Company, New

York, NY. (6.) Haila Y., A. O. Nicholls, I. K. Hanski, and S. Raivio. 1996. Stochasticity in bird habitat

selection: Year-to-year changes in territory in a boreal forest birds assemblage. Oikos. 76:536–552.

(7.) Martin T. E. 1998. Are microhabitat preferences of coexisting species under selection andadaptive? Ecology. 79:656–670.

(8.) Peterson R. T. A Field Guide to Western Birds 3rd Ed. copyright 1990, Houghton MifflinCompany, New York NY pp 208-210.

(9.) Soldatini C., D. Mainardi, N. E Baldaccini, D. Giunchi “A temporal analysis of the foraging flights of feral pigeons (Columba livia f. domestica) from three Italian cities” Italian Journal of Zoology, March 2006; 73(1): 83–92

(10.) Van Horne B. 1983. Density as a misleading indicator of habitat quality. Journal of Wildlife Management. 47:893–901.

Questions?