Pigeon

Around here, on the island of Newfoundland to call a bird a "pigeon" is ambiguous. In the city, where I live, it is clearly understood to mean this sort -- what used to be offcially called a rock dove but which nowadays is apparently just as officially known as a rock pigeon. All my life they've been a common urban sight in the downtown, and in recent decades, elsewhere through the city.

Outside the city, though, the word "pigeon" normally refers to the black guillemot, a bird that would never deign to stand on my deck rail which overlooks no salt water.