# Guessing pigeon age?



## 57821 (Mar 28, 2018)

I was given this white utility king pigeon last week. Wasn't banded or anything. I was wondering approximately how old it is? It's hard to tell exactly but it seems like pretty young (maybe a few months?)


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## White Homers (Sep 22, 2016)

Does it still squeak when handled? Does it's beak seem too big for its head? If any of these it is a young pigeon otherwise it is hard to know.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

Yes, that's a young pigeon.


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## Aurelie (Mar 12, 2015)

It's a young pigeon, you can see it from the beak that isn't fully covered yet and it doesn't curve yet at the end. You can also tell from his feet, he doesn't have scales on his feet yet, it's still all soft and rosey colored.

If you want to determine the age of older pigeons you need to start counting how many wing feathers are rounded at the end and different from the others. When pigeons mold, they don't lose all their flying feathers. It differs by age which ones they lose and how many.


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## 57821 (Mar 28, 2018)

Aurelie said:


> It's a young pigeon, you can see it from the beak that isn't fully covered yet and it doesn't curve yet at the end. You can also tell from his feet, he doesn't have scales on his feet yet, it's still all soft and rosey colored.
> 
> If you want to determine the age of older pigeons you need to start counting how many wing feathers are rounded at the end and different from the others. When pigeons mold, they don't lose all their flying feathers. It differs by age which ones they lose and how many.


It has scales on its feet but they're a lot softer and less chalky looking than older birds'. The cere is also pinkish but I can't tell if it's just bc it's a white bird because even the adults have more pinkish ceres. I haven't picked it up to count the flight feathers yet but I should do that.





White Homers said:


> Does it still squeak when handled? Does it's beak seem too big for its head? If any of these it is a young pigeon otherwise it is hard to know.


It's definitely not a squeaker age, it doesn't really vocalize if at all. I'm thinking it's between 2-4 months because it's fully feathered and flying but its physical attributes point it towards being pretty young. It also has trouble eating larger seeds like corn and what not and always follows the older bird everywhere. The adult utility KPs all seem to be more "filled out" and muscular but my bird is still sort of skinny (and I don't mean "filled out" to the extent of a show king, but even the utility kings are pretty stocky looking when they're mature)


Thanks guys, I definitely think its probably between 2 and 4 months and I was mainly asking because the people who gave it to me claim it's "female" but it's honestly hard to tell for sure because its so young. Definitely dont think its sexually mature yet. From all the things I've observed physically and behavior-wise it acts mostly female (felt the pubic bones of the vent and did the "tail up or down" test thing, also the head and body shape seems more feminine) but I know some birds fool people esp when theyre young like that. The blue bird is guaranteed a male because he is banded and I was able to look up information about him, plus hes already a few years old. They get along with each other really well and preen and cuddle each other, and there's no signs of territorial dispute among them which is good. 

The white one also tends to hide behind the blue one if its scared and follows him everywhere now, but I don't know if that's just a younger bird following an older bird thing or not. I guess I won't know "for sure" until the white one is old enough to lay an egg, if it does happen to be female, which I'm guessing won't be for another 2-4 months. If they do happen to be the same sex it looks like they've started to bond to each other anyway...they were apathetic towards each other for a while and it took them a week or two to start enjoying each others company. Here is a pic of them I took today


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