City - Palo Alto State - CA Country - United States
About
Columbia livia #165 Rock DOves are the wild, or "feral", version of the domestic pigeon. Introduced from Europe in the 17th century, Rock DOves have settled wherever there are cities, towns, farms or grain elevators. "Wilder" members of this species occasionally live close to tall cliffes along the ocean coast or in the interior. The Rock Dove was first domesticated from Eurasian birds in about 4500 B.C. as a source of meat. Since that time, Rock Doves have also been used by humans as message couriers- both Caesar and Napoleon used them- and as scientific subjects. Much of our understandin of bird migration, endocrinology, sensory perception, fligh and other avian traits and fiological functions derives form experiments involving Rock Doves. No other "wild" bird varies as much in coloration as the Rock Dove- a result of semi-domestication and extensive inbreeding over time. Taken from Birds of Northern California- Fix and Bezener, 2000.
0 
