Why Do Pigeons Fight? Top 5 Reasons [2024]

Birds of predators like Eagles, Hawks, or Vultures will certainly attack, fight and hunt for survival. It’s a built-in natural ecosystem. But ever wondered why pigeons fight with each other? Whereas they are one of the most peaceful birds.

Pigeons hold their dignity and pride over territorial dominance and rightful ownership. So, they will not back off from fighting with each other if other pigeons try to invade their territory.

Seems interesting, right? Let’s get to know more about it.

Why Do Pigeons Fight

5 Reasons Why Do Pigeons Fight

Even though pigeons are known for being gentle and calm, you will still find them pecking at each other occasionally. Well, dominance, possessiveness, and claiming rights are some of the icon behaviors of pigeons when we talk about why pigeons peck each other.

Pigeon fighting on the rooftop

Additionally, being aggressive is one of the natural instincts of this bird too. Also, you might often notice pigeons fluttering or slapping each other with their wings above their body during a fight.

Along with this, the reason why pigeons become aggressive and slap each other because of similar behavioral patterns too. Let’s have a look at what they are.

Territorial Dominance: Pigeons become aggressive and peck at each other when other birds try to claim their rightful territory. This might turn into a fierce fight as well.

Competitive Fight: You’ll see them getting aggressive during a fight in a neutral area or combat cage with other birds. That’s when they start to slap each other with wings to win the battle.

Possessive Behaviour: Pigeons are pretty possessive about their female partner, child, or anything they belong to. So, if an intruder tries to come near these, the pigeon becomes aggressive and fights for it.

Rock pigeons do this whenever they are courting alongside their female partner. Moreover, they tend to do it to warn off an intruder and show their dominating existence as well.

Slapping each other out of aggression: This action is called ‘Wing Clap.’ Usually, rock pigeons use wings for clapping. They create a conquest sound by bursting four to six claps in a second.

Fight of male and female pigeons: If males and females are mating partners, it’s common for them to become violent for little things. Other than this, female pigeons hold protective behavior towards their young and roosting nest.

Why Do Pigeons Peck Each Other’s Beaks?

Pigeons pecking each other’s beaks often indicate the kissing intimacy between them. You can consider this as their courtship ritual. Well, the method is quite interesting.

Usually, first, the hen pigeon approaches his mating partner. Then the male pigeon feeds some semi-imbibed seed from his beak, and they start rubbing their beaks.

This is when the hen feeds back on the pigeon and persuades the pigeon to kiss. Usually, this is the preceding period of their mating. After pecking each other’s beak, they will Coo.

After an intimate period, the first egg usually comes within ten days. And after a couple of days, the second one will be laid.

Why Do Pigeons Flap Wings at Each Other?

A pair of pigeons fighting on the ground
Intense pigeon fighting

Well, numerous reasons might be there behind their wing flapping. For instance, they exercise, fight with other pigeons, show dominance, etc.

However, while flying, pigeons tend to flap their wings faster to cope with other birds’ speed.

Pigeons in nature prefer to fly together. So this method helps them while flying in a group.
Additionally, pigeons use the wings flapping sound as an alarm system to warn fellow pigeons about predators.

Pigeon Behavior Explanation

When Pigeons become aggressive

pigeons are fighting for food
Pigeons are fighting for food

Researchers have conducted various experiments that explain the aggressiveness of pigeons.

Pigeons have numerous postures and gestures that indicate aggressive behavioral patterns. That can be head-shaking, nodding, displacement preening, etc.

However, those behaviors may be seen because of intervention in their territory by others, claiming their rightful ownership by intruders or other birds, intimacy efforts with their mating partner, etc.

On the other hand, pigeons’ aggression can be seen over silly matters as well because they are quite serious about their own little things.

pigeons fighting in the air

Do pigeons get revenge?

There have been mixed opinions about pigeons getting revenge. Well, pigeons can get their revenge against other birds. It’s quite usual between their cast.

If we talk about revenge against humans, then it can be argumentative. Some research says pigeons cannot recognize the incident and act accordingly later.

On the other hand, people faced some real experiences where pigeons purposefully made mischief of them—for instance, continuously unloading stools on someone’s balcony, avoiding some specific persons in the park, etc.

But the bottom line is that they have little emotional or mental capabilities to respond to any revenge act towards humans.

Do pigeons get angry and can hurt people?

Yes, pigeons can get angry sometimes. Research shows that pigeons have their own range of emotions, and anger is one of them. But, in general, pigeons don’t have any tendency to attack humans. But yes, pigeons might hurt people sometimes.

However, they can get angry when someone continuously teases them. Especially when someone tries to come near their nest or roosting place, they can show aggression by biting or constantly flapping their wings.

On the other hand, when some other birds try to get into their personal space or territory, pigeons get violent and angry too. So, you can find the bird in rage for a few reasons like this for sure.

Well, people should not be worried about their way of hurting. But it’s always better to maintain safety measures and not unnecessarily annoy them.

Does a pigeon bite hurt?

Pigeons usually tend to defend themselves rather than intentionally hurt people. However, their bite won’t cause any harm or injury in most cases.

Because birds like parrots have hookbills, that’s why the bite doesn’t cause much harm to humans. They usually grab the hand and shake it in the voice of protest.

What Do Pigeons Do When Angry?

Usually, pigeons get angry because of territorial invasion by others, getting teased, or mating competition with other birds.

In anger situations, they tend to form an attack position by crouching or stretching up taller. Similarly, they continuously flap their wings fast and flick their tails while being angry.

Their wings also produce an alarm system to call or warn other birds. They tend to look threatening in situations of anger. They usually bite with their beaks or peak at each other’s birds to show anger.

Do Pigeons Fight to the Death and Kill Each Other?

Pigeons are considered very calm, gentle, and peaceful birds. It’s not in their nature to kill other birds like hunter birds. However, they have a conquering mindset that cares about small things and their rightfulness.

And yes, it’s possible pigeons are fighting to the death. Their fighting relies on defending territory, dominance establishment over the nest, roosting place, food, or a mating partner.

This fight can turn intense, and they won’t hesitate to kill other birds to defend their ownership.

As a result, even though they are not hunters by nature, they will fight to earn what they own. But in general, they do not intend to kill each other during any fight.

So, male pigeons fight each other where the winner gets it all, and the loser flies away. But pigeons are proud birds and hold their dignity for rightfulness.

So, it’s possible to fight till death over their rightful ownership rather than flying away by losing the fight.

What to Do if Your Birds Are Fighting?

Whenever you come across birds fighting, you might take a few initiatives to control the situation before it gets nasty.

Cage Separation: If you find them fighting in a cage, then simply separate them from each other, providing enough food and water for both.

Select Neutral Playing Zone: Birds can be violent with each other if other birds start playing on their territory. You should select a neutral area that is none of their territories and let them play there to avoid fighting.

Break The Pair: The best solution is to separate the birds. Because birds often fight over little things. It’s better to break the fighting pair than let them fight for silly reasons.

Conclusion

Fighting pigeons is quite common as their natural instinct. Any threat towards this may turn into a fight with other pigeons. For instance, defending against territorial invasion and protecting the mating partner, young pigeons are the prime concerns of the pigeons.

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