Picture a pigeon: gray body, iridescent neck feathers, probably pecking away at trash on a city sidewalk. But there are actually more than 350 different breeds of pigeon, and many of them look nothing ...

The rock pigeon's funky hairdos have been pinned to a single gene mutation that signals head and neck feathers to grow up rather than down in a tamer fashion, report researchers who have just decoded ...

Charles Darwin bred pigeons, and used them to learn more about the inheritance of different characteristics. For pigeons, beak size is one of those characteristics. There are 350 pigeon breeds or more ...

Charles Darwin was obsessed with domestic pigeons. He thought they held the secrets of selection in their beaks. Free from the bonds of natural selection, the 350-plus breeds of domestic pigeons have ...

Although city dwellers may not want to admit it, humans and pigeons (also known among detractors as "flying rats") have been intertwined since ancient times. We domesticated pigeons between 3,000 and ...

In tomorrow’s New York Times, I write about what pigeons taught Darwin about evolution, and what they can teach us over 150 years later. The spur for the story is a new paper in which scientists ...

Pigeons display spectacular variations in their feathers, feet, beaks and other physical traits, but a new study shows that visible traits don’t always coincide with genetics: A bird from one breed ...

Rick Kilgore’s Chinese Owl pigeons are fluffed and ready for Saturday’s show. GREENFIELD — They’re not owls and they’re not Chinese, but Rick Kilgore will have his Chinese Owl pigeons on display at ...

Scientists have identified mutations in three key genes that determine feather color in domestic rock pigeons. The same genes control pigmentation of human skin and can be responsible for melanoma and ...