I agree with Cecil’s answer(s), but just wanted to report that baby pigeons DO exist because I’ve seen one.
In about 1986, my cat dragged one in (no idea how she aquired it) and it was, hands down, the butt-ugliest baby bird I’ve ever seen! It was almost as large as she was, so a rather mature “infant” of the species, but very clearly both a pigeon and a “baby”.
It was half-naked with half grown out pin-feathers, almost full, adult sized, and just terribly, hideously ugly.
Well, the adults are WAY more attractive than their offspring, I can assure you!
I actually love their brilliant, diverse colors and dove-like form, motions, and sounds.
But this spawn was like some mutant, and it took some careful examination to determine that it was, in fact, an “almost” pigeon.
Except for Doves, which are just all white pigeons.
You know when they release doves for weddings and such? How do you think the bird person gets the birds back? They are homing pigeons. They just fly home.
Slight hijack, but they don’t ALWAYS fly home. We had a female join our local kit one time. Every once in awhile on the way home they spot a group they’d rather hang out with. She was banded and clearly belonged to someone. It was interesting watching her hang out with the others, then youngsters started showing up with various amounts of white feathers.
Yes, pigeons are attracted to other pigeons. Whatever you do, do NOT pick up the banded bird and track down the ‘owner’ and return it. Since the bird clearly lacks strong homing ability, the owner will probably wring it’s neck as soon as you are out of sight.
Zebra is correct the white doves released at weddings are all-white homing pigeons - also called rock doves.
There is an all-white Ringneck dove, which is the true “Peace Dove” and they make nice pets but they generally don’t get released at special ceremonies, as they lack the homing instinct.
I have both rock doves (pigeons) and mourning doves (what you have) around my yard and both are distinct from the all-white Ringneck or “Peace Dove.”
I didn’t mean to disagree with Zebra about the particular doves released at weddings. I only meant to point out that the distinction between dove and pigeon is not purely based on color. If that wasn’t his/her point then I misunderstood.
Having raised and showed pigeons as a boy, I can tell you that the answers given are sensible and basically correct. Pigeons tend to nest in out-of-the-way places, just like doves, mocking birds, blue jays, etc.
The young develop quickly into juvenile birds which look, to the untrained eye, just like adults only a bit smaller. But if you saw them when first hatched, or when still in pinfeathers, you’d understand.
