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Rock Doves are big, heavy doves with a massive wing beat. The separation of the sexes is usually easiest by studying their behaviour, rather than by appearance/morphology. They have a dark-grey throat and head with narrow light-grey eye-rings. Ontop of their bill they have a characteristic white "operculum" (a membraneous, horny or cartilaginous flap). The front and the nape of the neck are iridescent green, while the sides of the neck and the breast are iridescent purple. The rest of the front (belly, vent, undertail coverts) is light-grey. The back and the uppertail coverts are light-grey, with a white patch on the rump. The most easily identifiable features are two bold dark-grey wing bars, which are not found in other, similar species. The underwings are off-white, with a dark-grey fringe all the way around each wing. The irises of both sexes are orange. The bill is dark-grey. The legs and feet are pink.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Rock Dove is available HERE .

Originally Rock Doves were a sedentary Eurasian species. However, these days even wild populations of Rock Doves within their native range are mostly derived from, or have interbred with, re-released domestic feral pigeons, even if they have reverted to their original outward appearance.

The native range of the 12 races of wild Rock Doves extends from the Atlantic islands (Canaries, Madeira, Azores, Cape Verde) eastward, across north-western Africa (the Atlas mountain range and surroundings), parts of the Sahara desert, the Mediterranean countries South of the Pyrenees, the Alps and through the Balkans, into Asia Minor and onward all the way to far western China and as far South as the entire Indian subcontinent, including Sri Lanka. They are also found in parts of the Middle East and on the Arabian peninsula. Everywhere else they are introduced.

In Arabia Rock Doves, race "palaestinae", populate basically the East coast of the Red Sea and its hinterland, down to the tip of Yemen, the South-east coast in the border region of Yemen and Oman and the northern coastline and hinterland of Oman, continuing all the way around the Persian Gulf in a broad, horseshoe-shaped distribution.

In natural habitats Rock Doves originally have a preference for (near-)coastal cliffs and inland escarpments. However, this species is very tolerant to the presence of humans and is now mostly found in tree hollows in or near urban areas, in particular parks, and on ledges of buildings.

Race "palaestinae"

Race "livia"