You definitely know what a pigeon or a rock dove is. But, I’ll still go into the details nevertheless. Rock Doves, more commonly known as Pigeons or Rock Pigeons are pale grey birds with black bars on each wing. These birds are very easily seen almost everywhere in the world and currently I’ve unconditionally employed a few of them to only pose for my shots. I say this because right outside our window I can see a flock of pigeons almost every day, on our neighbor’s roof.
When I’m home, it’s good way to go about my hobby of Bird Photography. Thus I can say that to me, Pigeons are the birds I practice some bird photography with when I don’t get to see any of those exotic and colorful species around. Pigeons are known to stay steady in the same place for a long time and thus it can be very easy to capture pigeon photos. The colors and texture of the pigeon can really shine and look vibrant whey they are under the sun. That also makes them look really exotic some times. The sound that pigeons make, is also very soothing to hear.
Video Courtesy: AviBirds. A Treasure of Bird Information and Videos.
Usually, the speed at which the pigeons flutter their wings to fly, isn’t very fast and thus it’s also absolutely amazing to see them in flight as the way they spread their wings to fly makes them look very beautiful. Goes without saying, it’s easier to capture pigeon photos n in flight mode. The white under-wing with a dark thick border gives an awesome look to this bird when in flight. To capture the pigeon photos in flight mode, I usually require to up the ISO up to 800 or more as the pigeons are mostly seen around on the roof during late evenings when the light is low. I use the shutter priority mode with shutter speeds up to 1/1000 secs.
You need a lot of patience to go about taking bird flight photos as a bird like pigeon, usually remains still for a long time but you’d never just when it decides to fly. Most of these picture are shot using my Canon PowerShot SX50 HS digital camera. I made sure to not zoom in too much in order to ensure I have enough space in the frame to capture the open wings when the pigeon decides to fly. Later I crop the pic for a better composition.
If you have got some good tips and photos, please do share in the comments. Highly appreciated. As much as they look good, they are also considered to be very dirty. We had a pair of pigeons staying in our balcony where the female had laid 2 eggs. We gave them some space to stay till the eggs would hatch but all those days we had a hard time cleaning up the mess as unlike some other birds, pigeons don’t mind staying in a dirty and stinky surrounding.
It’s a common, messy, but a beautiful looking bird.
Pigeon, Rock Dove, Photo Gallery
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I like most the pigeon on top of the above list and might like to include it in a children’s story that has themes of peace, justice, environmental action – how do I get permission to use the photo for the cover of the children’s book? Have you any other photos of individual pigeons I could look at? Nice work! Have you seen Andrew Garn’s book The New York Pigeon? Or Andrew Bacevich’s book, Pigeons?
Thanks for any copy right info I should have or any other photos.
Al Niese
Hi Alfred, Sorry for a late response. Please contact me via the contact form or on kcalpesh@gmail.com if you still need the pics of pigeon. Thanks.