# tipplers and highflyers



## whiteroller123 (Oct 9, 2009)

I am just wondering what are tippler and highflyer pigeons?

Thank you


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## Birdman79 (Aug 9, 2007)

Tipplers are endurance flying birds.Can fly very long hours depending on the strain ,feed,etc.Their flight height ranges from pins in the sky to medium low again depending on the above criteria.

Highflyers on the other hand fly so high they can become invisible to the naked eye.They also fly long hours,such as Pakistani,iranain,serbian,polish,armenians,etc.


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## Chilangz (Apr 3, 2008)

I hope this helps!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tippler

There are lots of breeds of highfliers named as per the region they come from


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## sunson (Nov 13, 2009)

Highflyers are pigeons that can fly high as as the name says 
What is high? 
Usually it is expected that highflyers can fly that high that the birds are just visibles as dark points in the blue sky or, still better, invisible to the naked eye of the observers on the ground. 
This is called <superior height> in highflying contest 
How high is this? There is much debate about that point as it depends very much on the air condition: humidity/temperature/turbulence and so on, but also on the number of pigeons in the highflying kit. In my opinion and based on a long experience (f.i. compared with the appearance of landing planes), pigeons get invisible when flying at about 600 m (±1800 feet) or higher. But some do not hesitate to dubble this figure. 
By laser telemetry it was once possible to measure a kit of 20 'invisible' Vienna highflyers at a height of 800m. So pigeons can fly quite high. By freeing pigeons from balloons it was once experienced that pigeons are not able to fly sustainly at >5000m. This experience was performed as, at the end of the 19th. century, for it was believed that racing pigeons had to fly that high to <see> their loft from the place where they were released, in order to be able to orientate!!!!!!!!!!! 

Pigeons are still visible as <points> when flying at about 500m.

The so called <medium height> is noted when only flapping of the wings of the pigeons is visible , without any distinctive tail nor head. ±400m. (sometimes called butterfly-hight)

Below that every hight is called <lower height>, but some distinct also <starling height>(<±350m), <sparrow height>(>±350m) and <church tower height>(<±150m).

Only true <flying pigeons> can fly above ±50m. Moreover this is the genetic characteristic that disappears first when breeding for exhibition and selecting by esthetic standards. Therefore most pigeons you will find in exhibition are no highflyers any more, whatever their name are on the coops. 
If highflying disappears from your pigeon strain, maybe because of inattention or bad selection of the breeders, it is very difficult if not impossible to breed it back into the strain. Man cannot force a pigeon to fly high. Highflyers fly high for their pleasure, it is possible that highflying is experienced by the birds as a drug. When your kit is 'in condition', they get prone to <overfly>.... 

Good longflyers like TIPPLERS (with records of over 21h continouous fly over their loft in the 'long day' competition every midsommer) are mostly also highflyers. It is known that most today highflyers (Budapester/Vienna/Ciung/Serbian/Cumulets...Stralsunder...) were selected from tumbler breeds where the tumbling was selected away in order to get a longer fly.

As to the origin of highflying for pigeons there is still much to search as highflying is contraproductive in a darwinian sense: highflying pigeons spill their energy useless and are much more prone to be be catched by predators, with no benefit for their reproduction. So this characteristic will be selected away by nature. Wild pigeons do not fly very high for their pleasure. 
It is beleaved that highflying was selected by priests in order to get messengers to the gods .... 

The first noted highflying pigeons were observed by the Frenchman Pierre de Belon in 1550 at the north coast (Black See) of Turkey. The guy noted that the pigeons flew that high, so that they were no more visible, but that they nevertheless landed all together and in good health a few hours later on the roof of their loft...


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