Wood Pigeon displaying to and mating with a dead conspecific

Wood Pigeon displaying to and mating with a dead conspecific

Mid-morning on 28th August 2020, I saw a Wood Pigeon Columba palumbus wing-flapping vigorously, apparently mating, in a tree in our front garden in Oundle, Cambridgeshire. I did not pay particular attention as a pair had been nesting close by for several weeks. Later that day, I found a dead Wood Pigeon at the base of the tree where the activity had taken place. I picked up the dead bird and put it in the back garden, half expecting that it might be taken by one of the local Red Kites Milvus milvus.

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