Band-tailed Pigeon

The Band-tailed Pigeon sits at the top of the Coat of Arms of Port Moody and was declared our official bird in 2005.

Band-tailed Pigeons are the largest pigeon native to North America (33-40cm).  The pigeons have a pale gray body and a long tail with a wide gray band at the tip.  They have a white crescent on their neck with a black-tipped yellow bill and yellow feet.  Their breeding range is restricted to B. C. in Canada and the west coast as far south as Northern Argentina.

Prior to 1916 the birds were harvested for food (market hunting) and then as a game bird for sport hunters.  Band-tailed Pigeons were hunted extensively in Pigeon Cove and Pigeon Point in Port Moody until 1971. A count in 1972 found an average of 86 lead pellets per square foot in Pigeon Cove.  

This large pigeon has suffered long-term declines throughout its range in the western mountains of North America, due in part to overhunting. Harvest has been severely limited in Canada for the past 16 years. Although population surveys (e.g. Breeding Bird Survey and mineral site counts) have low precision, they do suggest a stabilization of the population in the last decade. The species is long-lived (up to 22 years) and has a slow reproductive rate; females typically lay only one or two eggs per year. 

Forestry may negatively affect habitat in the long term, creating dense second-growth forests with few berry-producing shrubs. The pigeons also are susceptible to disturbance at isolated mineral sources needed for their nutrition. Band-tailed Pigeons require mineral sites, usually found in estuaries such as our Pigeon Cove, where Pigeon Creek flows into the cove.  It is believed that these birds are looking for sodium to counter-act the high potassium content of the fruits they eat.  

These birds are on the BC Blue List and protected in B.C. under the B.C. Wildlife Act and the Migratory Convention Act (1994). Learn more in this report from the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC).