The wild ancestor of the domestic pigeon found the world over, the Rock dove was originally domesticated as a food source. Feral pigeons are all shades of color: some bluer, some blacker, some pale gray with darker chequered markings, some an unusual shade of cinnamon-brown or dull brick-red, some more or less white, and others looking exactly like rock doves in the wild. In urban areas where numbers increase unchecked, they can become pests.