Band-tailed Pigeon

About the Band-tailed Pigeon

A big, handsome pigeon of the western mountains, the Band-tailed Pigeon is soft gray with a purplish wash to the head and breast, a narrow white crescent on the nape, a yellow bill tipped in black, and the pale gray tail band that gives it its name. Larger and heavier than the familiar city pigeon, it is very much a bird of the high country.

Band-tailed Pigeons feed on acorns, pine seeds, and berries, often gathering in flocks that wheel over the treetops and clatter up from a favored oak. Their low, owl-like hooting can be surprisingly hard to track down.

In Texas they are uncommon, local birds of the wooded mountains of the Trans-Pecos, such as the higher canyons of Big Bend, present mainly in the warmer months.

A note from behind the lens: flocks favor tall snags and treetops, so expect to shoot upward - try to find a bird perched against open sky, or catch them coming to a fruiting or acorn-laden tree in good light on a mountain morning.