![[Wow!] Milk Though It’s a Bird? The Mysterious Parenting of Pigeons with “Pigeon Milk”](https://animal-illustration.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/pigeon-milk-graphic-recording-en.png)
When speaking of “milk,” people tend to think it belongs only to mammals. But did you know that a familiar type of bird also produces milk for child-rearing? That bird is the pigeon.
Pigeons secrete a special liquid called “pigeon milk” (also known as crop milk). Unlike mammals, it does not come from mammary glands; rather, a part of the esophagus called the “crop” develops and secretes it.
The most distinct feature of pigeon milk is that “both males and females produce it.” The parent birds feed this milk to the chicks mouth-to-mouth, and the chicks grow rapidly using this as their nutrition source.
The wonder of pigeon parenting lies in using the unique means of “milk” for child-rearing, despite being a bird. The way you look at a familiar pigeon might change a little.
