Country diary: It doesn't pay to be a brightly coloured pigeon | Claire Stares

Langstone, Hampshire: It's always breeding season for feral pigeons, and the colony on the roof opposite are certainly playing their part in the web of lifeFrom my bed, I have an uninterrupted view of the roof opposite. Every morning, just after sunrise, a small colony of feral pigeons stirs, emerging from behind the solar panels. All but one are pure white, stark against the slate. The outlier, a single male with mottled black-and-white plumage, struts along the ridge tiles with his chest puffed out, as though he knows he's unique.These birds are descendants of rock doves, once dwellers of sea cliffs and mountain ledges, now almost entirely urbanised. The steeply sloping roof mimics their ancestral sites, and the void behind the panels creates a cave-like, warm, dry, protected space ideal for roosting and nesting. Continue reading...