In the colder northern and eastern parts of its European and western Asiatic range the Wood Pigeon is a migrant, but in southern and western Europe it is a well distributed and often abundant resident.

Most of its food is vegetable, taken from open fields or gardens and lawns; young shoots and seedlings are favoured, and it will take grain. This species can be an agricultural pest, and it is often shot, being a legal quarry species in most European countries. It is wary in rural areas, but often quite tame where it is not persecuted.