Are there any medical or therapeutic uses of pigeon milk in human health?

Can you drink pigeon milk?

Not in any practical or recommended sense. Pigeon milk is not sold as a food, and we found no health authority that lists it as a food or a treatment. Searches for “do people drink pigeon milk” lead to descriptions of the bird secretion, not to human use.

What is pigeon milk?

Pigeon milk, also called crop milk, is a thick, pale, semi-solid substance made in the lining of the crop (a pouch in the throat) of pigeons and doves. Both male and female birds make it, and the chicks are fed with it for their first days. It is controlled by prolactin, the same hormone involved in milk production in mammals. Flamingos and male emperor penguins make similar secretions.

What is in pigeon milk?

• Very high protein and fat, reported as higher than in cow or human milk.
• No carbohydrates, unlike mammal milk (no lactose).
• Antibodies and other immune factors, and carotenoids, that help the chicks.

These findings come from studies of birds. They do not show that the substance is safe or useful for people.

Is there any medical or therapeutic use?

No. Claims that pigeon milk is a traditional remedy or can boost human immunity are not backed by any clinical trial or health body that we could find. The immune factors help baby pigeons; nobody has shown they work the same way in a human body. Treat any product or page that sells pigeon milk as a cure with strong suspicion.

Why is it not a food?

It is made only in tiny amounts, for a short time, by a bird that is not farmed for it, and it is not a regulated food anywhere we checked. There is also no safety testing for human use. Birds can carry germs, so handling raw crop secretions is a hygiene risk.

What to do instead

If you want a high-protein drink, regular dairy milk, fortified plant milk, yogurt drinks or kefir are widely available and have labeled nutrition. For a medical question about immunity or nutrition, ask a doctor or dietitian.