Do Pigeons Store Food? – Not Exactly, But…!
Pigeons are daily scavengers or foragers. They need food daily. Even in the winter, pigeons come out to search for food.
But do pigeons store food? No, pigeons don’t store food for a long time in external storage. But they do store food temporarily in their crops. It is a sack-like organ between the esophagus and the stomach. They store food in the crop for some time before passing it down.
I will explain the foraging nature of pigeons and a bit about their digestive systems to clarify whether pigeons store food or not. Let’s begin.
Interested in similar topics on pigeon habits:
How Do Pigeons Store Food?
As I have already stated, pigeons only store food temporarily. Seeds and grains are the most common food for pigeons. These birds tend to forage for food every day.
So, you will see them regardless of the season or the weather.
The digestive tract of pigeons has seven major parts. They are the mouth, buccal cavity, pharynx, esophagus, crop, proventriculus and gizzard.
Here is a diagram of the digestive system of pigeons.
When eating food, pigeons usually swallow the seeds or grains whole. The food travels through the esophagus and gets stored in the crop. This large sack helps the seeds and grains to become softer for the stomach.
The food is stored in the crop for a short period.
Pigeons tend to pass some of the stored food to the stomach from time to time until all the food is digested. Once the food reserve in the crop is over, pigeons need to forage and eat again.
So, you see, pigeons store food, but that isn’t similar to other birds or rodents that store food in external storage. Pigeons only store food in their digestive tract to gulp them down slowly.
Learn about pigeon lifestyle in “Pigeon Habits” . We cover their eating, nesting, and interactions with humans.
Do Pigeons Store Food in Crops?
Yes. The crop is a thin sac in the digestive tract of pigeons. This organ helps pigeons store food temporarily. It has two benefits.
01. Greater Food Intake
Pigeons don’t have to digest all the food at the same time. So they can remain full for longer.
02. Ease of digestion
Another purpose of the crop is to soften the food. As pigeons often eat seeds and grains that are too tough, the crop secretes some digestive juice to soften the food. So, digesting the food becomes easier for the stomach.
If you catch a live pigeon and touch the part below their neck, you may even feel grains in the crop. Other than the crop, pigeons usually don’t store food anywhere else.
Do Pigeons Remember Where They Store Food?
As pigeons don’t store food in external storage, they don’t have to remember where they stored the food. They have internal storage built-in.
But pigeons do remember where they found food in the past.
For example, pigeons living in urban areas may have found seeds or grains on a certain property or on a road earlier.
When they need food the next time, they will remember that place and come back to the place to find food. Pigeons have excellent memory and can recall the places where food can be available.
How Long Do Pigeons Store Food?
Pigeons need to forage every day for food. So, they don’t store food in the crop for a long time. Once they eat food, it remains in the crop for a few hours.
But not all of the eaten food remains in the crop the whole time.
As soon as pigeons eat something, the food starts going to the stomach. It takes a few hours for all the food to transfer to the stomach. So, pigeons only store food for that period.
Do Pigeons Store Food in the Winter?
Not at all. Pigeons don’t have the natural instinct to store food for the winter.
As foraging birds, they have to go out every day and find their daily food. This continues even in the harsh winter months.
The foraging pattern might change a bit for pigeons in the winter. For example, pigeons living in farmlands or woodlands might have a scarcity of food in the winter.
So, they tend to move to urban or suburban areas with a higher human presence.
Human interaction has become common for pigeons. They see the human population as their food source.
Pigeons will generally forage in rubbish bins, bird feeders, etc., in the winter. Leftover human food is one of the biggest sources for pigeons in the winter.
Where Do Pigeons Store Uneaten Food?
Pigeons don’t take unwanted food anywhere. You might have seen them foraging or eating in flocks. When one pigeon in the group finds food, it is likely to make feeding calls to attract other pigeons in the vicinity.
Once they have finished eating, they will fly away to other places or their resting areas. But they won’t take any uneaten food to eat later. They know where to find food next time they need to eat.
But if you ask about the food they swallowed but not digested yet, they store it in the crop.
Conclusion
If you feed pigeons once, they will keep coming back to your place for food. This shows how intelligent pigeons are about finding food sources.
As they eat a lot of seeds and grains at a time, you may wonder, do pigeons store food?
Well, pigeons store food in their crops temporarily. But they don’t have any external place to hide the food or save it for when the food is scarce.
Their natural instinct is to eat what is available. So, they aren’t exactly food storing like many other birds.
References
- https://allstatepest.com.au/bird-control/are-pest-pigeons-a-problem-in-winter/
- https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/do-birds-store-food-for-the-winter/
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0065345408604891
