homing pigeon?

Well from where I'm from there are pidgeons everywhere that look like that. We consider them pests here.. but what you found was a male pidgeon, and it may or may not be a homing pidgeon, but I do know that all the pidgeons around here have bands. They are tagged by the city so they can do research on their populations.

G'morning,

Is it at all possible for you to catch the bird and post what each band says? If so, I possibly can let you know what racing club it may be from (if it is, in fact, owned by a club) and recently was a participant in a race within the Caribbean Islands.

Swan

If you can catch it, you could also take it to DPNR-fish and wildlife. They would figure out where it came from and could arrange for it to go back home.

Or contact Toni Lance of the Avian Sanctuary http://www.stcroixthisweek.com/featured-articles/avian-sanctuary.html . She would prefer to keep the bird rather than give it back to the owner for more abuse. Racers release their pigeons down island, hundreds of miles from home, and some birds get exhausted flying back home. She collected one from us a few years ago. Just make sure the bird can be easily approached (i.e.: captured) so she doesn't waste a trip. Give it water to drink in the meantime.

Or contact Toni Lance of the Avian Sanctuary http://www.stcroixthisweek.com/featured-articles/avian-sanctuary.html . She would prefer to keep the bird rather than give it back to the owner for more abuse. Racers release their pigeons down island, hundreds of miles from home, and some birds get exhausted flying back home. She collected one from us a few years ago. Just make sure the bird can be easily approached (i.e.: captured) so she doesn't waste a trip. Give it water to drink in the meantime.

Bob is absolutely 100% correct: Case in point: A banded pigeon found on STX on April 29, 2010 was bred in Stockholm, New Jersey and sold/ transferred to a Pigeon Racing Club in PR. The bird did not successfully complete the race from St. Maarten to PR and was now of "no value" to the racing club (either for breeding or for future races.) When I spoke to the breeder of the bird (N.J) he stated that the bird would make a very nice pet for someone on STX. Returned, it may -in fact- be destroyed, since it failed to achieve it's goal.

If it can be caught and if Toni can take the bird, wonderful! In the meantime, they prefer water at about 2 inches deep (a pet dish even), some pigeon "mix" (or even a bird seed variety obtained at the store) and rest. They are lovely birds and very easy to care for. Thanks. And thank you, Bob, for bringing this very important fact to light.

Swan

Thank you all for the information.

We will care for the bird her til we are sure it can be approached.

At the moment it is foraging in our fruit orchard and under trees around our yard.

It is a beautiful bird!

Sloop

Thank you all for the information.

We will care for the bird her til we are sure it can be approached.

At the moment it is foraging in our fruit orchard and under trees around our yard.

It is a beautiful bird!

Sloop

Sloop, Thank you for your caring and your kindness in helping out this bird.

For added information, in general, the "racing pigeon" is lost for several reasons during a race:

- poor training in order for it to locate it's loft. Training must be done in stages whereby the pigeons are released little by little further away from their lofts. They learn to get a layout of the land, so to speak.
- hawks attacks.
- solar flares, which affect the magnetism of the earth. It is believed that pigeons use not only the landscape in guiding them "home' but may also contain "magnetite" in the brain to afford N,S,E,W direction. If the magnetism of earth is disrupted, it follows that the bird's sense of direction also is disrupted. Solar flares affect the earth's magnetism, especially CMEs.
- many pigeons are lost during a race. While I realize that those who belong to the AU (American Racing Pigeon Union), IF (International Racing Pigeon Federation, CU (Canada Racing Pigeon Union, Homers in Florida, may take issue with me, well...I personally have 13 banded pigeons that hail from Florida to upstate New York. All were lost, fell from the sky, emaciated, and near death.

Having said that, I don't support the sport of racing the pigeons and do not support releasing the white homing pigeons (no, they are not white 'doves') at weddings or other events.

Thank you once more for your compassion in caring for this bird.
Swan

A few years ago we had a racing pigeon show up at our house exhausted. Beautiful purple throat and translucent looking head. It was very tame and we were able to catch it and take it to Toni Lance. It had 2 bands on it's legs.
She has several coops with various rescued birds. She informed us she would cut the bands, feed it high protein feed with an antibiotic. (there was a small puncture wound under one wing), then release it when healthy. She pointed to her roof line where several released birds were lined up that decided to stay but she also commented many decide to leave when released. Very cool.
So Sloop, if you can feed her back to a healthy bird you may have found a pet!!!

On another note Toni had rescued a female adult German Sheperd that was starving and was obviously nursing a litter. The litter was never found but the Mama dog we adopted and she is a wonderful addition. She weighed about 45 pounds when we got her and now she's a healthy 90 lbs.. This dog will not let my wife out of her sight. Bad guys? Come on in!!:D

We need more caring animal lovers like Toni in the islands.

I really did not know anything about racing pigeons until this thread. Glad to read it. Mr. Jones, it sounds like that bird found a little oasis with you. Best wishes!

Just stopping by to say this thread makes me smile! :$)

Just stopping by to say this thread makes me smile! :$)

G'day,

So nice to hear!

A tidbit of info: The pigeons and closely related doves are St. Francis's (of Assisi - and the Patron Saint of Animals) "Birds of Peace"). Sculptures and artworks depict him holding the birds: it is usually these wonderful characters perched on his shoulders and embraced by his hands. In Rome (especiallly) one can hardly admire the beautiful sculptures outside without a pigeon comfortably sitting on it. I feel these awesome works of art may have been crafted for the bird!:-)

In the meantime, enjoy all of the birds and all the beautiful wildlife around you! They are a gift.

Swan