Our largest and most common pigeon, the woodpigeon is a familiar bird of gardens, parks, woodlands and farmlands right across the country. Its husky ‘hoo-hroo’ call is a well-known sound of the country. Woodpigeons feed on seeds, leaves, grains, fruit, peas and root crops and can become a serious agricultural pest in certain areas.

Woodpigeons makes flimsy twig nests in trees, in which the female lays two eggs. Both sexes incubate and raise the young, feeding them on ‘pigeon milk’ – a regurgitated, milky substance from a food-storage organ called a ‘crop’.