Red-billed Pigeon Life History

Habitat

Red-billed Pigeons occur in tropical deciduous forest, gallery forest (along rivers and streams), forest patches and edges, and semiopen areas with scattered trees. They rarely occur in rainforest. At the northern edge of their range in southern Texas, these pigeons inhabit mainly wooded bottomlands with tall trees, especially on islands in the Rio Grande.

Food

Red-billed Pigeons feed mainly on berries, small fruits, acorns, and tree buds. They forage in the crowns of trees and shrubs, where they pluck fruits and swallow them whole.

Nesting

Nest Placement

Both sexes help build the nest, which they place on a branch or fork in a tree or shrub, typically about 1.5–4.5 meters (5–15 feet) high.

Nest Description

A flimsy-looking structure built with sticks and lined with stems and grass. Some nests are so sparse that the egg is visible through the nest from below.

Nesting Facts

Behavior

Red-billed Pigeons spend most of their time in trees, coming to the ground occasionally to drink water or feed on crops like corn and sorghum. During the breeding season, these pigeons usually occur alone or in pairs, but at other times, they gather into flocks of 50+ birds. Their flight is typically strong and direct. When displaying, they fly upward on slow, deep wingbeats before circling downward with the wings held high. Both sexes contribute to building the nest, and following a general pattern in pigeons, the female incubates at night while the male incubates during the day. Detailed studies of the closely related Band-tailed Pigeon suggest that Red-billed Pigeon nestlings likely leave the nest when they are 22–29 days old.

Conservation

Partners in Flight estimates Red-billed Pigeon’s global breeding population size at 2,000,000 individuals and rates the species a 12 out of 20 on the Continental Concern Score, indicating a species of fairly low conservation concern.

Credits

Howell, S. N. G., and S. Webb (1995). A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America. Oxford University Press, Oxford, United Kingdom.

Lowther, P. E., J. Breeden, and J. C. Eitniear (2020). Red-billed Pigeon (Patagioenas flavirostris), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (P. G. Rodewald, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.rebpig1.01

Partners in Flight (2023). Avian Conservation Assessment Database, version 2023.

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