Seen yesterday in Teruel, Spain.
This is my second sighting of such a creature. The first time (different city so not the same bird) I didn’t get a good look, and suspected the poor pigeon had somehow been, um, artistically vandalized. But this one was clearly natural (PS: or not, see comments), with symmetric coloration merging perfectly into the iridescent breast.
Some cursory research did not turn up clues. Did its domestic ancestor mate with its budgie cagemate? Nah, that can’t be right.
Anyway, it seems that polychromatic feral pigeons are a thing.
PS. More angles:
PPS: I was fooled by a pigeon, or rather by a pigeon artist! Well done to the sleuthers here.
I wonder if it’s these guys, at it again
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2014/aug/06/painted-pigeons-paloma-al-aire-ricardo-cases-in-pictures
Well, well. Looks like you’ve got to the bottom of it. That would explain the ring too.
I was taken in by a virtuoso pigeon artist!
It must have escaped. It was getting a lot of attention at the cafe, but from children. The staff were completely uninterested, presumably because they knew it already. In my experience individual pigeons tend to frequent exactly the same haunts.
Maybe not escaped, I know a lot of pigeon keepers let their birds free range and they only come home at night.
Amazing. Did not know that but it figures.
Pigeon keeping is an absolutely fascinating topic, haha
IIRC Darwin spent much of Origin of Species talking about it. That and, um, worms.
It’s pride pigeons 😍
It’s a game they play here in in the region of Murcia and I know a few that play, trade and buy these “palomos”, a top 10 finisher can fetch around 3000€.
Sometimes the pigeons get lost, and their tracker doesn’t work to find them, so they can be found in the wild, but it isn’t common because they are easy prey for eagles.