Pigeons Switzerland: Symbol of peace and mass shooting

Pigeons are among humanity's oldest companions. They have been domesticated for over 7,000 years and revered as messengers, providers of food and symbols of peace. In Switzerland today, the pigeon is perhaps the most despised and least protected animal of all. Wood pigeons and collared doves are shot as small game, while the feral domestic pigeon (city pigeon) can be hunted all year round and is systematically combated in Swiss cities through feeding bans, deterrence and killing ordered by the authorities. The closely related turtle dove, once an emblem of love, is listed as “vulnerable” on the global Red List and is considered “highly endangered” in Switzerland. The association Stadttauben Schweiz sums up the absurdity: the city pigeon is a homeless domestic animal bred by humans, which we treat like a pest.

Profile

Domestic pigeon / city pigeon (Columba livia f. domestica)

The city pigeon is descended from the rock dove (Columba livia), which was domesticated over 7,000 years ago in the Mediterranean region and the Near East. Breeding has produced hundreds of varieties, including homing pigeons, meat pigeons and ornamental pigeons. Escaped and released birds formed feral populations, which today live in almost every Swiss city. The city pigeon is 30 to 35 centimetres long and weighs 250 to 380 grams. Its plumage varies greatly, from the wild form (blue-grey with two black wing bars and a neck shimmering metallic green-violet) to brown, white and mottled variants. This diversity is a sign of its origins in captive breeding. The city pigeon breeds all year round, as the urge to breed was bred into it during domestication. It lays two eggs per clutch, with up to six broods a year. Under the Federal Act on Hunting, the city pigeon may be hunted all year round in Switzerland (JSG, Art. 5 para. 3). In 2025, 4,409 domestic pigeons were killed in Switzerland, 2,593 of them in the canton of Zurich alone (Federal Hunting Statistics).

Wood pigeon (Columba palumbus)

At 40 to 42 centimetres in length and 450 to 520 grams in weight, the wood pigeon is the largest pigeon species in Europe. It is recognisable by a white patch on the neck and white wing bars that stand out in flight. In Switzerland the wood pigeon is a regular breeding bird and passage migrant. On migration it avoids the Alps and flies mainly along the Jura and across the Central Plateau. In October, huge migrating flocks can be observed at certain spots (Swiss Ornithological Institute, Sempach). The wood pigeon lives in field copses, woods, parks and, increasingly, in cities. Its diet consists of seeds, buds, berries, beechnuts and acorns. Its wingspan is 68 to 77 centimetres. It breeds two to three times a year, laying two eggs each time, with an incubation period of 17 days. The wood pigeon may be hunted in Switzerland; its closed season runs from 16 February to 31 July (JSG, Art. 5 para. 1 let. m).

Collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto)

At 31 to 33 centimetres in length and 150 to 200 grams in weight, the collared dove is considerably smaller and daintier than the wood pigeon. Its plumage is uniformly pale beige-brown, and its most striking feature is a deep black stripe on the nape. The collared dove has one of the most remarkable dispersal histories in ornithology: originally native to south-east Asia and the Near East, it began a spectacular expansion north-westwards in the 1930s. It reached Vienna in 1943, Augsburg in 1946, the Netherlands in 1949 and Great Britain in 1956. In Switzerland the population is estimated at 15,000 to 20,000 breeding pairs. The collared dove is a synanthropic species that lives almost exclusively near human settlements. It prefers to nest in conifers and, under favourable conditions, can breed all year round. The collared dove may be hunted in Switzerland (JSG, Art. 5 para. 1 let. m). Since 2005 the number of collared doves shot has fluctuated between 79 and 757 per year; in 2025 it was 110 (Federal Hunting Statistics).

The feral pigeon: a domestic animal without rights

Domesticated, abandoned, persecuted

The feral pigeon is not a wild animal. Genetically it is a domestic animal that, through millennia of breeding, has developed traits that are disadvantageous in the wild: year-round breeding activity regardless of food supply, reduced flight behaviour, site fidelity and diminished territorial behaviour. The association Stadttauben Schweiz documents: “City pigeons are homeless domestic animals bred by humans. The urge to breed was cultivated during domestication” (Watson, 2023). The legal experts at the foundation Tier im Recht state: “In Zurich, city pigeons are also regarded as wild animals, which is legally questionable” (Tier im Recht, 2023).

Despite these facts, the Swiss hunting act classifies feral domestic pigeons as wild animals (JSG, Art. 5). This has far-reaching consequences: the city pigeon enjoys no protection under domestic animal law, it may be hunted all year round, and feeding bans are enforced on the grounds that wild animals do not depend on being fed by humans. This argument ignores biological reality: city pigeons breed even when the food supply is inadequate, because their reproductive drive is genetically fixed and not governed by food availability as it is in true wild animals.

Feeding bans: regulation by starvation

Since 1 January 2023, a completely revised hunting act has been in force in the canton of Zurich, with a comprehensive feeding ban for wild animals that is also applied to city pigeons. Despite the ban, organised groups continue to feed pigeons. The City of Zurich speaks of an intensifying problem (SRF, 2025). The foundation Stadttauben-Management Schweiz warns: “Closing off all of a city's food sources for pigeons and consistently enforcing a feeding ban would amount to a killing measure by starvation. This form of population reduction involves considerable suffering and pain for the animals and is not compatible with the Animal Welfare Act” (Stadttauben Schweiz, Stadttauben-Management in Schweizer Städten).

The Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO) confirms: "No means may be used to deter pigeons that cause the animals unjustified pain and injury" (FSVO, Pigeons). In practice, however, measures that raise animal welfare concerns are used: spiked collars, which can cause serious injuries; netting that pigeons slip behind and cannot find their way out of; and the systematic withholding of food from animals that are genetically unable to adjust their reproduction to the amount of food available.

The Augsburg model: the only solution that works

The only demonstrably effective and animal-welfare-compliant method of controlling urban pigeon populations is the so-called Augsburg model: managed pigeon lofts in which the birds are fed appropriately, find nesting sites and have their eggs replaced with dummies (birth control). In Basel, the Grand Council decided in January 2026, as a counter-proposal to the urban pigeon initiative, on a four-year pilot project with five managed pigeon lofts and approved CHF 830,000 for it. On 14 June 2026, voters rejected the initiative and accepted the counter-proposal with 67.8 per cent in favour (Canton of Basel-Stadt, final result 14.6.2026; Feral pigeons: Basel votes, Zurich kills, Bern shows how it's done). In Lucerne, the city has run an urban pigeon project since 2001 with two pigeon lofts and reproduction control. In Zurich there are three pigeon lofts, which according to the association Stadttauben Schweiz are not enough. A petition with over 9,000 signatures called for their expansion (SRF, 2025). In September 2026, the Zurich city parliament instructed the city council, by 61 votes to 53, to draw up a credit proposal for expanding managed pigeon lofts along the lines of the Augsburg model (Zurich decides to expand pigeon lofts instead of culling).

More on this: Animal welfare problem: wild animals suffer agonising deaths because of recreational hunters

Hunting: target practice on the flight path

Legal situation

Under the Federal Act on Hunting, the wood pigeon and the collared dove are huntable bird species with a closed season from 16 February to 31 July (JSG, Art. 5 para. 1 let. m). The feral domestic pigeon may be hunted all year round (JSG, Art. 5 para. 3). In 2025, the Canton of Zurich removed the collared dove from the list of huntable species; the wood pigeon remains huntable there (How an individual initiative restricted bird hunting in Zurich). In the canton of Basel-Landschaft, for example, the hunting season for the wood pigeon and the collared dove runs from 1 August to 15 February (Canton BL, hunting seasons 2024/25). The cantons may extend or restrict closed seasons. BirdLife Switzerland comments: “Not only the hunting of hares but also that of birds is entirely unnecessary from an ecological standpoint” (BirdLife Switzerland, hunting statistics). NABU calls for the wood pigeon to be removed from hunting law and transferred to nature conservation law (NABU, Ringeltaube).

The scale of the killing

The Federal Hunting Statistics list the pigeon species individually. In 2025, 4,409 feral pigeons (2,593 of them in the canton of Zurich), 1,169 wood pigeons and 110 collared doves were killed in Switzerland. In the case of the wood pigeon, 272 animals came from special culls in the canton of Geneva, where there is no recreational hunting. From 2016 to 2025, 1,637 collared doves were shot, 471 of them in the canton of Zurich. In total, 22,178 birds of huntable species were killed in Switzerland in 2025 (Federal Hunting Statistics, queried on 21.10.2026; Swiss Hunting Statistics 2025).

By comparison, in Germany between 655,000 and 917,000 wild pigeons are shot every year (Graumännchen.org). In North Rhine-Westphalia alone, around 639,000 wild pigeons were shot in the 2005/2006 season. NABU documents that around half of the wood pigeon kills in NRW took place during the breeding season, “which results, among other things, in the orphaning and starvation of the young birds. This is incompatible with the Animal Welfare Act and with an ethically responsible treatment of animals” (NABU NRW, Ringeltaube).

The turtle dove: the warning no one is heeding

The turtle dove (Streptopelia turtur) is the smallest European pigeon species and has been listed as “vulnerable” (VU) on the IUCN global Red List since 2015. Worldwide, one in three turtle doves has disappeared over the last 16 years. In Switzerland, populations are small and declining (BirdLife Switzerland, 2023). A survey in Geneva (GOBG, 2017–2019) showed a dramatic decline to just 16 territories, a drop of 70 per cent since 1998. The Red List of breeding birds compiled by the FOEN and the Swiss Ornithological Institute (2021) has upgraded the turtle dove from “near threatened” (NT) to “endangered” (EN) and warns that the outlook for the turtle dove and the corn bunting is “increasingly bleak. Their survival in Switzerland is in question.”

The turtle dove may not be a huntable species in Switzerland, but it is dying out all the same: from the intensification of agriculture, from pesticide use, from the loss of fallow arable land and hedgerows, and from recreational hunting and poaching along its migration route through the Mediterranean region, where millions of turtle doves are shot every year (BirdLife International, 2018). The turtle dove shows what happens when a pigeon or dove species faces multiple threats. The wood pigeon and the Eurasian collared dove are not yet on the Red List. But the turtle dove was not on it either, before it was too late.

More on this: Dossier: Hunting and Biodiversity

Intelligence: More than a “bird brain”

Navigation: the biological GPS

Pigeons possess one of the most complex navigation systems in the animal kingdom. A study by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), published in Science in 2025, has decoded the neural mechanism of their magnetic sense: specialised hair cells in the inner ear convert magnetic fields into electrical signals by means of electromagnetic induction, and these signals are relayed via the vestibular nucleus to the mesopallium (a brain region responsible for complex processing). Professor David Keays (LMU) describes the system as a “biological GPS” that works on the same physical principle as the wireless charging of smartphones (LMU München, Science 2025).

As early as 2012, Le-Qing Wu and David Dickman (Baylor College of Medicine, Houston) had shown in Science that nerve cells in the brainstem of pigeons encode the direction, intensity and polarity of the magnetic field, enabling the birds to calculate both compass direction and geographic latitude (Spektrum der Wissenschaft, 2012). Pigeons combine this magnetic sense with a sun compass, olfactory orientation and visual landmark recognition. A study by the University of Zurich, using a mini neurologger, showed that a homing pigeon's brain activity rises sharply when it recognises a familiar feature of the terrain (Vyssotski, Current Biology).

Cognitive abilities

Pigeons can memorise more than 800 different images and still match them correctly after several weeks. In 2016, researchers at the University of Bochum and the University of Otago (New Zealand) demonstrated that pigeons can learn English spelling and distinguish correctly spelt words from invented ones. A US study showed that pigeons process time and space in an abstract way similar to humans and monkeys (Meinbezirk.at, 2021). Pigeons can also form categories, distinguish between art styles (Monet vs. Picasso), recognise faces and even apply basic mathematical principles. All of these abilities were demonstrated in domesticated pigeons, the very animals we disparage as 'rats with wings'.

Ecological significance

Seed dispersal

Wood pigeons and collared doves feed on berries, beechnuts, acorns and seeds, and disperse them over long distances through their droppings. As migratory birds, wood pigeons help to connect plant populations that are increasingly isolated by landscape fragmentation.

Food chain

Pigeons are a key prey species for birds of prey. The peregrine falcon has established itself as an urban bird because the feral pigeon is its main prey. The rock dove, the ancestor of the domestic pigeon, was the peregrine falcon's main prey in the Mediterranean region. Goshawks and sparrowhawks also regularly take wood pigeons. The eagle owl, Europe's largest owl, feeds predominantly on wood pigeons in many regions (Graumännchen.org). Without pigeons, the populations of these raptors and owls would be at risk.

Carrion removal and ground cleaning

Feral pigeons clear away food scraps and waste in public spaces. This service is never quantified, but it eases the burden on municipal cleaning and reduces the food supply for rats. Where feral pigeons are consistently driven away, it is not residents who benefit, but rat populations.

What needs to change

Removal of the wood pigeon and collared dove from the list of huntable species: Hunting pigeons has no reasonable justification within the meaning of the Animal Welfare Act. The wood pigeon is a migratory species, and hunting it during the breeding season leaves young birds orphaned. The collared dove has seen a population decline of more than 40 per cent in North Rhine-Westphalia; hunting it in Switzerland cannot be justified.
Reclassification of the feral pigeon as a feral domestic animal: The legal classification of the feral pigeon as a wild animal is scientifically wrong and ethically untenable. Feral domestic pigeons are genetically domestic animals whose behaviour has been shaped by thousands of years of breeding. They belong under the protection of domestic animal law, not under the hunting act.
Supervised pigeon lofts in all Swiss cities following the Augsburg model: The only demonstrably effective and animal-welfare-compliant method of controlling feral pigeon populations is a combination of supervised pigeon lofts, controlled feeding and egg replacement. Feeding bans alone do not reduce the pigeon population, as breeding activity is genetically determined. They merely lead to malnutrition, disease and animal suffering.
Ban on deterrent measures that violate animal welfare: Spiked collars that injure pigeons, poisoned bait and nets behind which pigeons are trapped must be banned and consistently prosecuted.
Protection of the turtle dove and its habitats: Switzerland must advocate internationally for a complete hunting moratorium on the turtle dove and, at national level, promote fallow arable land, hedgerows and structurally diverse agricultural land that serve the turtle dove as breeding and feeding habitat.

Talking points

“Feral pigeons are ‘rats with wings’ and carriers of disease.” The term “rats with wings” dates back to a 1951 documentary and is a propaganda term with no scientific basis. The Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO) does list theoretical disease risks, but actual transmission to humans is extremely rare. Studies show that the risk posed by feral pigeons is no greater than that from other wild birds. Vilifying the feral pigeon as a hygiene hazard serves to make the deterrence and killing of a defenceless animal socially acceptable.

“Feeding bans are necessary to control the pigeon population.” Feeding bans do not reduce the pigeon population. Because breeding activity is genetically fixed, even undernourished feral pigeons keep reproducing. The result is not fewer pigeons, but sicker pigeons, which arouse more pity among passers-by and are consequently fed more often in secret. The foundation Stadttauben Schweiz documents: «As a standalone measure, a feeding ban has hardly any influence on population size» (Stadttauben Schweiz, management paper). The Augsburg model with supervised pigeon lofts and egg swapping is the only demonstrably effective solution.

«The wood pigeon is common and causes damage to agriculture.» That a species is common does not automatically make killing it permissible. The Animal Welfare Act requires a reasonable cause. The damage caused by wood pigeons in Swiss agriculture is locally limited and can be managed with deterrent measures (visual deterrents, diversionary feeding). In Germany, over 700,000 wild pigeons are shot every year without the population being reduced in any lasting way. If shooting has no lasting effect, it is not damage prevention but recreational killing.

«Feral domestic pigeons are wild animals and fall under the hunting act.» The legal classification as a wild animal does not change the biological reality. Geneticists and behavioural biologists agree: feral domestic pigeons remain genetically domestic animals. The city pigeon is tied to its location, not shy, dependent on humans for reproduction (year-round breeding that was bred into it) and, unlike a wild animal, unable to respond to food shortages with reduced reproduction. Treating it as a wild animal is a legal fiction that runs counter to animal welfare.

«Hunting wild pigeons is a tradition and part of small-game hunting.» The tradition of pigeon hunting is no argument for continuing it. In the Mediterranean region, millions of migratory birds, including turtle doves, are shot every year. The declining populations of many migratory bird species across Europe show that cumulative hunting along migration routes is not sustainable. NABU therefore demands that all migratory bird species be removed from hunting law. Switzerland should take the lead here, not lag behind.

Quick links

Articles on Wild beim Wild:

Related dossiers

sources

FOEN, Federal Hunting Statistics: Kill and special kill of domestic pigeon, wood pigeon, collared dove 2005–2025, retrieved on 21.10.2026 (jagdstatistik.ch)
Swiss Ornithological Institute Sempach: Wood pigeon, species profile (vogelwarte.ch)
BirdLife Switzerland: The Current Hunting Statistics and the Revised Hunting Act (birdlife.ch)
BirdLife Switzerland (2023): New Red List of globally threatened species, assessment for Switzerland (birdlife.ch)
BirdLife International (2018): State of the World’s Birds, Red List of birds
FOEN / Swiss Ornithological Institute (2021): Red List of breeding birds (turtle dove: EN) (bafu.admin.ch)
NABU NRW: Wood pigeon, hunting and kills during the breeding season (nabu.de)
NABU: Position paper on hunting, demand to remove the wood pigeon from hunting law (nabu.de)
Executive Council of Basel-Stadt (2025): Urban pigeon concept, pilot project for managed pigeon lofts (bs.ch)
SRF (2026): Basel to get five pigeon lofts, initiative wants more (srf.ch)
SRF (2025): Defiant pigeon feeders defy the law (srf.ch)
Watson (2023): Pigeon war rages in Zurich (watson.ch)
City of Zurich: Pigeons, feeding ban from 2023 (stadt-zuerich.ch)
FSVO Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office: Pigeons (blv.admin.ch)
Stadttauben Schweiz: Urban pigeon management in Swiss cities (stadttauben.ch)
Stiftung Tier im Recht: The urban pigeon as a wild animal, legally questionable (tierimrecht.org, cited in Watson)
Keays, D. et al. (2025): Magnetic sense in pigeons, inner ear and electromagnetic induction. Science (LMU Munich)
Wu, L.-Q. and Dickman, D. (2012): The homing pigeon's GPS sits in the brain. Science (Baylor College of Medicine)
Vyssotski, A. et al.: Brain activity of freely flying homing pigeons, mini neurologger. Current Biology (University of Zurich)
Wikipedia: Eurasian collared dove, population in Switzerland (15,000–20,000 breeding pairs)
Graumännchen.org: Wild pigeons (wood pigeon kills in Germany 655,000–917,000)
Canton of Basel-Landschaft: Hunting seasons 2024/25 (wood pigeon, Eurasian collared dove)
Canton of Basel-Stadt (2026): Final result of the vote of 14 June 2026, urban pigeon initiative and counter-proposal (bs.ch)
IG Wild beim Wild (2026): Swiss Hunting Statistics 2025
Federal Act on Hunting and the Protection of Wild Mammals and Birds (JSG, SR 922.0)
Animal Welfare Act (TSchG, SR 455)

Our Standard

Pigeons are fascinating animals. They possess a biological navigation system that science only began to decipher in 2025, a "GPS in the inner ear" based on the principle of electromagnetic induction. They can remember hundreds of images, process time and space in the abstract, and learn the rules of human spelling. They have served humans as messengers in wars, shaped a cultural history thousands of years old as symbols of peace and love, and, as research subjects, have supplied essential insights into neurobiology and cognition.

And what do we do with them? We shoot the wood pigeon on its autumn migration because it is supposedly a “delicious quarry”. We hunt the collared dove, which has only settled in Switzerland over the past few decades. We vilify the feral pigeon as the “rat of the skies” and try to starve it out with feeding bans, even though we ourselves bred it as a domestic animal and then released it. And we look on as the turtle dove, once a symbol of love, is critically endangered in Switzerland and is shot by the millions along its migration route through the Mediterranean.

The conclusion is clear: the wood pigeon and the collared dove must be struck from the list of huntable species. The feral pigeon must be recognised as a feral domestic animal and cared for in all Swiss cities with supervised pigeon lofts following the Augsburg model. And Switzerland must press internationally for a complete hunting moratorium on the turtle dove. This dossier is updated continuously whenever new figures, studies or political developments require it.

More on the topic of recreational hunting: in our hunting dossier we bring together fact checks, analyses and background reports.