That handsome ‘pigeon’ called Brian is actually a rock dove. Yes, he’s pigeon too, but not your common-or-garden feral pigeon, but a genuine rock dove. The pale grey wings with the two dark bands identify him.

Rock doves have interbred with domestic pigeons from dovecots to produce our wide range of feral pigeons in our cities.

He’s lovely. There were two nesting in a fancy cast-iron drain thing on the house next to me, just under the roof gutter, but the magpies got the eggs.

They now just roost there.

Coo-coo from Silverlily