Why do pigeons only populate cities?

Cities contain the most dropped French fries.

I’m making a note of that: pigeons thrive on French fries.

They eat leftover takeaway food that people have carelessly discarded. People also throw down pigeon food in city squares etc. I don’t find them very attractive birds but they seem to infest cities worldwide. We used to have lots of starlings here 50 years ago, they have largely disappeared and pigeons and seagulls have taken over.

They don’t. Many farms are home to pigeons, and they roost in the barns.

My uncle raised racing pigeons out in the country in Oklahoma.

When they raced, they stopped in the big cities to pick up French fries. ~

There’s always people in the city who might have a homing pigeon or they might live there because cities always have people who feed them or food laying around.

Cities have a more appealing food source. Why eat bird seeds when you can have a delicious, greasy french fry???

Lots of food, lack of predators.

Aren’t pigeons just dirty city squab that people (generally) don’t eat?

Depending on where, I’m guessing there’s squab in the country?

Fun fact: there is no difference between a pigeon and a dove. But city birds are more likely to be identified as pigeons than as doves largely because of the preexisting belief that most city birds are pigeons.

^That is indeed interesting.

Having grown up in NYC I can tell you that there are a lot of fat overfed pigeons. People often fed them stale old bread at the parks. Also, there are a lot of places for them to make sturdy nests on buildings without too much fear of predators. Then throw in the water fountains around the beautiful parks or elaborate buildings they have a constant water source. So plenty of food, safer surroundings, and water equals the ability to produce more offspring than in an open area where there are more predators and food may be more difficult to come by.
There are also a lot of trash bins and cans throughout the city. The pidgeons know where to find food if someone isn’t handing it to them. They are sky rats.

Pigeons are ubiquitous, like people and rats. And just like people and rats they are concentrated in cities. But there are plenty of common pigeons in rural areas, and you can spot them on farms, often grazing alongside chickens. Rural pigeons are by necessity a lot more savvy when it comes to Predators. And Predators are a major reason rural flocks never accumulate in numbers comparable to city birds.

My Father raised racing pigeons and we lived in the city. He trained them to go through the drive thru and bring home french fries.

Most of the pigeons in cities are feral descendants of domesticated rock doves. Tall structures such as tall buildings, bridges and/or towers are similar to the natural habitats, which are seaside cliffs.

I should also mention that cities have people who will throw out a half eaten burger and there are a lot of dropped french fries that didn’t make the five second rule.

@Strauss Interesting. I didn’t know that was the species name. Yes there are thousands of rock doves in NYC. Though I didn’t know they like seaside cliffs. That makes perfect sense.

There is a nice dove field close enough to a metro area here to attract the occasional pigeon. Someone I know who hunts there tells me he’ll bag a pigeon every now and then and they taste just like dove with just a little more meat. Not that there is that much to begin with.