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This article comes from: "The Racing Pigeon Digest"
Racing Pigeon Digest Article Archives
An Introduction to Pigeons and Pigeon Racing
It is often claimed that the first homing pigeon was the dove released by Noah, but the sport of racing homing pigeons
is of more recent vintage. And no, the homing pigeon is not extinct -- that is the passenger pigeon! Pigeons have been used
as message carriers for centuries, but in the 1800s a sport evolved, not over the issue of whether a bird could home, but
how fast it could negotiate the distance. By the late 1800s there were races in regularly conducted competitions in the United
States of America as in Belgium, Holland and Great Britain.
The homing pigeon is a specifically bred variety of pigeon, unlike the feral pigeons which plague most cities. Homing
pigeons are pedigreed and range in cost from free to $250,000. They are free because many fanciers will assist new flyers.
The racing pigeon is reported to be the product of several crossings of different varieties of domesticated pigeons which
were then subjected to training and racing. From these evolved pigeons capable of being released several hundred miles from
their loft. They could return home with average speeds of 45 to 50 m.p.h., depending on wind conditions. It is very common
today to have racing pigeons released shortly after daybreak, 500 air miles from home and the birds are able to orient, and
fly all day, arriving at home before nightfall.
How do racing pigeons find their way home? No one knows for sure. Research at Cornell and the University of Pittsburgh
indicate that pigeons may have multiple facilities allowing them to determine the correct direction of home. There is little
doubt that the sun is the primary orientation clue used by homing pigeons, but there have been experiments which have developed
night flying pigeons, thus showing that the sun is not the only available orientation reference. Some scientists believe that
pigeons also perceive the earth's magnetic field and utilize it for finding their way home. Other scientists have opined that
pigeons may orient through a sense of smell or even low frequency sound via their hearing. Research is still going on at several
universities trying to learn the secret of this bird's ability to navigate distances of 1,000 miles or more to return to its
owner's backyard loft. But as far as breeders are concerned, the only way to discover if a bird possesses the required homing
instinct, as well as athletic ability to do so quickly, is to race them.
Two race seasons are usually conducted every year. Birds bred in any given year are raced in the late summer and fall
of that year in a series of races called "young bird races." These races usually start from distances of 100 miles
and extend out to 300 miles. There are clubs which regularly engage in 400 mile young bird races and one or two that have
500 mile young bird races. The other season is in the spring and early summer in which all birds hatched in preceding years
are allowed to compete. These are the "old bird races" and some birds are raced until seven years of age. These
races usually begin at 100 miles and may go out to 600 miles, or even farther. Very few 1000 mile races are flown today.
A race is conducted by having at least five members form a club. Prior to the race season, measurements are made from
the entrance to the loft to the nearest roadway, then to the nearest intersection and these measurements are sent to a survey
company. The exact distance (to three decimal points) from the entryway at the loft to each release point is computed. In
other words, each loft is flying a different distance. For example, in a 100 mile race, one loft's team of birds may be flying
97.652 miles from the release point while a competitor's may be flying 110.925 miles.
On shipping day, each owner brings in his team of pigeons, which all have been banded with a seamless registration band
which had to be placed on the youngster's leg between six and ten days of age. Only birds with the registration band are eligible
for competition. The owner also brings a racing clock to the shipping. The entries receive a rubber "countermark"
on the unbanded leg and its numbers are recorded. The birds are then placed in crates which are later sealed. All participants
then produce their clocks which are set using a universal timer, are then are sealed. The crates are then transferred to the
liberation truck or trailer for transport to the race point and the owners return to their homes to await news of the release
and then the arrival of their birds.
After weather conditions are checked, the birds are released and the participating lofts notified of the release time
and weather conditions. The individual fanciers then try to estimate when they think the approximate arrival time of their
birds. When a bird returns home, the fancier does not get credit until the bird enters the loft and the "countermark
retrieved." The countermark is then placed into the racing clock, the handle is turned, and it records the exact time
to the second that the bird arrived, on a paper tape. Based on new technology, some new racing clocks are paperless, while
others use a "scanner" band, instead of a countermark, which is read by a "scanner" clock similar to grocery
store cashier scanners. The later allows the flyer to be two places at one time -- he can be at work, if necessary, or at
his child's soccer game and still participate in racing his pigeons without having to make some hard choices.
At the conclusion of the race there is the "bang-out" in which all participants bring their clocks to be opened.
The clocks are stamped off and stopped, again using the universal timer. In this way they can determine whether a clock is
running fast or slow. The seals are checked to make sure there has been no tampering with the clock and then the clocks are
opened. The countermark or scanner numbers are recorded with the exact time the bird returned to the loft. Today, computers
adjust the clock times based on whether they run fast or slow and then by calculating distance and time, arrive at the speed
in terms of yards per minute. The bird with the fastest yards per minute wins a race, not the first bird home. A bird that
homes at 9:56 at a loft 110 miles from the release point obviously flew a faster race than the bird that flew 97 miles and
was clocked in at 9:55.
As Jim Jenner in his remarkable video "Marathon in the Sky," narrated by Michael Landon, notes, there is one
starting gate but a thousand finish lines.
In the United States there are two primary national racing pigeon organizations. The International Federation of American
Homing Pigeon Fanciers (IF) is the oldest, with approximately 3,500 members, and is geographically concentrated on the east
coast but has clubs in the other sections of the country. It allows it's clubs to develop their own sets of local race rules.
The American Racing Pigeon Union (AU) is the younger, has over 9,000 members in all 50 states. The AU's philosophy is more
centered on uniform race rules under which all of its members participate.
In Canada, there is only one national racing pigeon organization. The Canadian Racing Pigeon Union, formed in 1929 has
an estimated 2500 members, concentrated in the central and eastern parts of the country.
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