What foods do wood pigeons eat during different seasons?

The wood pigeon (Columba palumbus) is a versatile feeder that adapts its diet to seasonal availability, foraging both in trees and on the ground. Its seasonal food sources include:12

• Winter: During midwinter, when other food is scarce, wood pigeons subsist almost entirely on clover leaves, spending the vast majority of their day foraging for these fragments.2
• Spring: The diet expands to include tree buds, flowers, and various pasture weed seeds.2
• Summer: The diet is primarily composed of cereal grains.2
• Autumn: As cereal stocks decline on the stubble, the birds supplement their intake with tree-based foods, such as acorns and beech mast.2

Because these foods are generally low in protein and nutritional value, wood pigeons must consume large quantities daily. They utilize a specialized storage organ called a crop, which allows them to ingest food at a rate faster than they can digest it, enabling them to process the surplus after they have gone to roost.2