Pigeon Rescue

I got a call early this morning about a bird that had been found. This has happened fairly often since I used to be the president of the Ogden Racing Pigeon Club.

What made this call unique, was that it came from my son who is stationed in Spokane, WA, with the US Air Force...Stranger still, the band number he was inquiring about was one of the bands registered to me.

You might wonder how something like this could happen, so I decided this was a good opportunity to explain a little about racing pigeons. These are not the birds you see perched on the side of building, or roosting under overpasses.  These birds are genetically bred for one thing: to fly home, and to fly home fast, from distances out to 600 miles (for our club). There are clubs that hold longer races, and there are even speed records recorded out to 2000 miles.

 Every bird is given a unique seamless band when it is 5-10 days old. 

That band is registered to a specific national organization, in our case, the American Racing Pigeon Union or AU.  Each band is clearly marked with four identifying features: National Association; Year; Club Identification; and a unique identifying number.

The bird in question this moring, wore the band AU 2010 OGN 642, signifying American Racing Pigeon Union, hatched in the year 2010, member OGN (OGDEN) club, and unique number 642.  Since I have all OGN bands in the 600s, I know that this is one of my bands.  Checking my band register, I see that I actually gave this band to my partner at Stealth Lofts when he ran out of bands in late July.

I asked my son how he found the bird in Washington, over 400 miles away since the bird is, at best, only a few months old.  He relayed a story of having a friend from down here in Utah call and tell him about finding the bird and wanting to know if there was a way for her to get it back to the owner.  I told him to give her my number and I would arrange to pick up the bird. Then I contacted my friend and told him about the found bird and that I would retrieve it.

I am always impressed by the people that find our hurt or injured birds and the bond they develop in such a short time. 

If you should find a lost bird, go to the AU website, and follow the steps on caring for a lost bird.  Contact the club secretary listed on the Web site.  And if that doesn't work, leave a comment on my blog and I will do all I can to help get the little fellow home.