Reproduction
During breeding season, usually during the warmer months, a male pigeon will court the female by puffing out his chest, bobbing his head and strutting circles around her, all the while cooing his affections. If she accepts, she will allow him onto her back in order to copulate. After mating the male will build nest out of gathered sticks in a suitable crevice, while the female watches and makes changes. Urban birds will gladly use a roof on a building. The female will usually lay two eggs which will hatch 17 to 19 days. Both parents aid in rearing the nestlings. Fledglings usually leave the nest three to four weeks after hatching.
Read more about this topic: Homing Pigeon
Famous quotes containing the word reproduction:
“An original is a creation
motivated by desire.
Any reproduction of an original
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It is marvelous that we are
the only species that creates
gratuitous forms.
To create is divine, to reproduce
is human.”
—Man Ray (1890–1976)
“Although Samuel had a depraved imagination—perhaps even because of this—love, for him, was less a matter of the senses than of the intellect. It was, above all, admiration and appetite for beauty; he considered reproduction a flaw of love, and pregnancy a form of insanity. He wrote on one occasion: “Angels are hermaphrodite and sterile.””
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)
“The atmosphere parents wish to create when talking with children about birth and reproduction is warm, honest, and reassuring, one that tells children they are free to ask questions as often as they need to, and you will answer them as lovingly as you know how.”
—Joanna Cole (20th century)