What S The Difference Between A Dove And A Pigeon

Camila Farah

What is the difference between a dove and a pigeon. The term pigeons and doves are often used interchangeably. In ornithological practice there is a tendency for dove to be used for smaller species and pigeon for larger ones but this is in no way consistently applied and historically the common names for these birds involve much variation between dove and pigeon.

Pigeons and doves both belong to the columbidae family which includes around 310 species of birds.

Instead it is more of a linguistic variation and there isn t any notable difference between the two. As said earlier there aren t any scientific or taxonomic difference between a pigeon and a dove. Others say that pigeons are the larger columbidae while attributing the smaller species as doves. The difference between doves and pigeons lies in their size.

The general view is that doves are beautiful soft looking birds a symbol of love and peace while pigeons are somewhat reviled a feral bird often thought of a vermin found in mainly gray brown and blue colors. There s no difference between a pigeon and a dove in scientific nomenclature but colloquial english tends to categorize them by size. The domestic pigeon which is often called a rock dove and also known as the dove of peace. When we talk about the difference between dove and pigeon a general perception comes in mind is that a dove is a cute peaceful and soft looking white bird while a pigeon is a feral and street bird that can be found in gray blue brown colours but not in white colour.

Both pigeon and dove are the members of same columbidae family which consists of more than 300 species of birds. As mentioned before none of these distinctions are scientifically recognized. According to global britannica although the terms dove and pigeon are often used interchangeably there are differences between the two species. In ornithological practice the birds that are larger in size are referred to as pigeons while the smaller ones are referred to as doves.

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To some pigeons are the pest like columbidae that live within cities while doves are the wild cousins of these birds that live in the forests. Doves typically have smaller bodies and bigger tails than pigeons. While doves are smaller and have a pointed tail pigeons are larger in size and have a rounded tail both are found in almost all parts of the world there are large pigeons weighing almost 4kg and there are also doves weighing as little as 22 grams. The wood pigeon is a french word derived from the latin word pipo whereas the dove is a germanic word.

Something called a dove is generally smaller than something. The fact is however that doves and pigeons are in the same taxonomic family. In general parlance the terms dove and pigeon are used somewhat interchangeably. But there is an exception.