What do wild pigeons eat with their cursed beaks?

Man-wai Chang ToDie +MS=V32B:

I noticed that they had problem swallowing a small slump of bread, when the sparrows could just dice it with their smaller, straight beaks..

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Ted Byers:

[nq:1]I noticed that they had problem swallowing a small slump of bread, when the sparrows could just dice it with ... is Beauty! May the Force and Farce be with you! /( )\ (Xubuntu 8.04.2) =A0Linux 2.6.28.9 =A0 =A0[/nq]^ ^ =A0 20:20:01 up 5 days 7:33 1 user load average: 1.00 1.00 1.0=0
[nq:1]???! ???! ???! ???! ???! ???! ?? (CSSA):http://www.swd.gov.hk/tc/index=/site pubsvc/page socsecu/sub addressesa[/nq]
Check out "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dove ". wikipedia is your friend. You don't have to look far.
Pigeons and doves are basically the same thing. There is no scientific basis for distinguishing them, some have a popular convention of referring to the smaller species as doves and to the larger as pigeons.
Young are called squab, as are those shot for the dinner table (at least in some places). (Look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squab (food) for more on traditional vs modern use of squab as food. It makes some sense. Pigeons are common, and can do significant damage to farmers (such as their pea crops), and they form an inexpensive source of high quality protein.
On that wikipedia page ( ) you will find the following (and much more):
"Pigeons and doves constitute the family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerine birds. In general parlance the terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably. In ornithological practice, there is a tendency for "dove" to be used for smaller species and "pigeon" for larger ones, but this is in no way consistently applied, and historically the common names for these birds involve a great deal of variation between the term "dove" and "pigeon." This family occurs worldwide, but the greatest variety is in the Indomalaya and Australasia ecozones.

"Seeds and fruit form the major component of the diet of pigeons and doves. In fact, the family can be divided into the seed eating or granivorous species (subfamily Columbinae) and the fruit eating or frugivorous species (the other four subfamilies). The granivorous typically feed on seed found on the ground, whereas the species that feed on fruit and mast tend to feed in trees. There are morphological adaptations that can be used to distinguish between the two groups, granivorous species tend to have thick walls in the gizzards, whereas the frugivores tend to have thin walls. In addition fruit eating species have short intestines whereas those that eat seeds have longer ones. Frugivores are capable of clinging to branches and even hang upside down in order to reach fruit.
"In addition to fruit and seeds a number of other food items are taken by many species. Some species, particularly the ground-doves and quail- doves take a large number of prey items such as insects and worms. One species, the Atoll Fruit-dove is specialised in taking insect and reptile prey. Snails, moths and other insects are taken by White- crowned Pigeons, Orange Doves and Ruddy Ground Doves."

HTH
Ted

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What do wild pigeons eat with their cursed beaks?

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