Crested Pigeon Australian Bird Earrings

Crested Pigeon Earrings.

Made from our original hand painted design, these earrings are printed with eco-friendly inks, onto light weight sustainably grown hoop pine and finished with stainless steel hoops, perfect for sensitive ears!

Ocyphaps lophotes, the crested or topknot pigeon is a medium sized stocky bird found throughout mainland Australia in rural and urban lightly wooded grasslands that have water access nearby for daily drinking. They have a distinctive sharply pointed, grey-black crest, a light grey body with lovely pinkish brown touches, a loud coo-whoo or coo call and make an iconic whistling flurry of wingbeats when they take flight. Hang out in small flocks foraging on the ground for native and introduced seeds, grains and fruits. Have adapted well to agricultural areas and city life.

Pigeons mainly breed in the warmer months and form monogamous pairs that may become longer-term partnerships. They both engage in an elaborate mating dance with bobbing, spread tail feathers and soft hooting. After copulation they build a simple nest in a shrub or tree made from a platform of twigs, the female lays 2 glossy white eggs and they take turns to incubate them. After about 30 days the squabs hatch and they both care for them, initially producing a specialised semi-solid crop secretion or pigeon milk followed later by regurgitated seeds. Throughout history pigeons have been honoured as sacred messengers from the gods and seen as symbols of love, peace, compassion, wisdom and power.