Why do pigeons move their head back and forth when they are walking?

Question

Why do pigeons move their head back and forth when they are walking?

Answer 1

a pigeon's legs are connected to its body--and it's a good thing, because the pigeon would look mighty funny if it were assembled according to the offhand anatomy you describe.

Basically the pigeon's back-and-forth head motion--not exactly a bob--helps it keep its balance when walking. The pigeon's legs are located pretty far astern, and if it kept its head forward all the time it would probably tip over. This would expose the pigeon to the ridicule of the community. Instead, what it does is move its chest forward in time with one leg, and its head forward in time with the other leg. Thus some weight is always trailing a little abaft the port beam, as we say. Many fowl have similarly peculiar gaits, because they cannot afford orthopedic shoes.

Answer 2

Many birds walk like that.

The reason is to keep the head still relative to the surroundings so that the scene is not moving (the bird's view of it).

So, move the head quickly forward, then stationary relative to the surroundings while the body catches up.

If you focus on the head you will see that it is mostly stationary - moving ahead only for a very short interval.

Luckily we mammals have a better vision system and we don't need to do that.

Here's something: Since birds are fairly close the the dinosaurs, evolution wise, did the dino's walk that way? Hmmmm.