Commonly dubbed “flying rats” and notorious for leaving their droppings on urban monuments, pigeons are a daily sight for city residents. However, many people find themselves puzzled as to why they’ve never come across a baby pigeon.
On the social media platform X, a user named Saniya Sayed sparked curiosity with a post that garnered over two million views and 21,000 likes, questioning: “Where do pigeons hide their kids?”
Sayed continued, “Every pigeon I’ve ever seen is fully grown. I’ve never seen a baby pigeon, and it’s genuinely troubling me.”
This intriguing post found its way onto Instagram, where it was shared multiple times, amassing tens of thousands of additional likes and drawing hundreds of thousands more views.
Similarly, other social media users have created viral videos posing the same question about these seemingly rare juvenile birds.
The mystery is solved by understanding pigeon parenting habits: young pigeons, known as squabs, remain in their nests for as long as six weeks before venturing out into the world.
Squabs are fed by their monogamous pigeon parents for four to six weeks and grow rapidly before leaving the nest.
By the time they do, the birds already closely resemble adult pigeons and are difficult to distinguish for the untrained eye.
People have taken to social media and been asking why they have never seen a baby pigeon before
Pigeons are more formally known as rock doves. A man walks past pigeons in blizzard conditions in New York City last month
Baby pigeons, called squabs, grow rapidly and by the time they leave the nest, they are nearly identical in appearance to adult pigeons. The bird woman (pictured) in Home Alone 2 was known for feeding the pigeons
This user on X went viral for asking why she had never seen a baby pigeon, which inspired similar viral posts across social media platforms
The birds, also called rock doves, are cliff and cave nesters, and urban areas provide plenty of spaces that imitate those natural environments.
The birds tend to nest on rooftops, building ledges, air conditioning units, under bridges or in abandoned structures.
Most residents are therefore unlikely to see pigeons’ flimsy-looking nests, the eggs which resemble smaller versions of those laid by chickens or the awkward squabs covered in scraggly tufts of yellow down feathers.
Male and female pigeons raise their young together and feed the babies with ‘pigeon milk,’ which is rather unique among birds.
The curd-like substance is produced by both sexes from a pouch in their throat and is high in fat, protein and antioxidants, fueling the rapid growth of squabs.
Pigeons tend to stay with one mate for as long as possible, only choosing a new partner if one of the couple dies. In those cases, the birds will pick a new mate, though often not immediately.
The birds reproduce throughout the year, though in warmer regions they sometimes avoid nesting during the coldest months.
Female pigeons lay their eggs one to two weeks after mating, usually two eggs at a time, though occasionally there is a third. Both parents incubate the eggs, which typically takes 16 to 19 days.
Squabs are helpless and entirely dependent on their parents. A newborn pigeon is pictured with its tufts of yellow down feathers
Parent pigeons feed their young ‘pigeon milk’ which is high in fat, protein and antioxidants. A mother pigeon is pictured protecting her baby on a balcony
Pigeons build nests in urban places that imitate natural cliffs and caves. An adult pigeon is pictured on its nest built in the nook of a brick wall
When the babies hatch, they are entirely dependent on their parents, who feed them pigeon milk for the first ten days of their lives before transitioning to softened adult food such as grains and seeds.
By the time the young pigeons fledge, they look just like their parents, only their feathers are duller. The birds have an average lifespan of two to five years in the wild.
The relatively quick mating, birth and child-rearing cycle, which takes about two to three months from start to finish, means that rock doves can raise as many as five broods a year under the right conditions.
After leaving the nest, young pigeons join a new flock and are ready to mate after just a few months, repeating the largely unseen cycle.
