# Las Vegas Feral Pigeon Releases - Homing Ability



## Vegas_Justin (May 4, 2011)

Hello, 

I have been feeding pigeons for years now at my workplace here in Las Vegas near Tropicana and Valley View.

Not until recently (withing the past few weeks) have I started to trap and band them. I have banded 25 so far on their right legs. They return everyday with Bright Pink Pigeon Bands numbered 1 - 25.

Starting last Friday, I have taken 3 home with me. 1 on Friday, I tagged him with a Bright Orange Tag #50 on his left leg. I released him just over 20 miles as the crow flys from where I work. 

Release Point Losee and the 215 in North Las Vegas. I saw him back at work on Monday and trapped/released him again.

I also trapped and banded 2 on Saturday on the Left Legs with Bright Orange Band numbers #48 & #49. They were previously trapped and banded with my Bright Pink Bands on their right legs.

They were released from the same point on Saturday and both showed up yesterday as well as number 50.

I have to say I was extremely impressed with their homing abilities, right out of the gate with 20 mile return home flights.

All released were made at 6 P.M. in the evening with about an hour and a half or so of daylight for them to fly in. It's Unknown if they made the flight home the same day or not as I did not see them again for 2 days from their release date. That's when they returned to feed again. I don't know where their roosts are.

Just thought some of you might find this interesting.


Justin


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## Quazar (Jul 27, 2010)

Well since most ferals have originated from escaped homers or race birds then their homing ability would be passed on to their young in some way or other so to speak, but interesting experiment. 
If you found out where their roost was, and kept an eye on it without interfering with them or trapping them there (if you did they may abandon that altogether feeling it unsafe any longer) you would find out how long they took as that would more than likeley be their first call.
Once home and rested, they would get back into their usual routine of visiting their known favourite feeding grounds hence the reason they maybe took a couple of days to show up at your work again.


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## Vegas_Justin (May 4, 2011)

Thanks for the reply. 

Yes I would like to know where their roost is, however taking into account where my workplace is (a huge industrial area in Las Vegas), there is just too many billboard signs as well as building tops for them too roost in. 

I wish I did know as I would like to track them a little closer as you mentioned, without disturbing their roosting location of course. 

I trapped two more pigeons today that I will be bringing home with me. One has made the 20+ mile trip already, and the other has been trapped many times before, however I just banded and released it. This will be it's first chance to fly back home today at 6 PM.

Justin


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## RodSD (Oct 24, 2008)

That is a nice story. I am not surprised, however, because many of those ferals are pure homers and mix homers(crossed with wild-type ferals). You just have to get familiar with them to know the difference.

If they can home 20+ miles, then they act more like homers than the usual wild-type ferals which can get lost closer than that!


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## Vegas_Justin (May 4, 2011)

RodSD said:


> That is a nice story. I am not surprised, however, because many of those ferals are pure homers and mix homers(crossed with wild-type ferals). You just have to get familiar with them to know the difference.
> 
> If they can home 20+ miles, then they act more like homers than the usual wild-type ferals which can get lost closer than that!


Thanks Rod, 

Yes they are wild homers I believe, but I really do not know how to tell the difference. By the way, my mother is Filipino and my Father is American, so I am halo halo... LOL

My mother tells me stories about the pigeon wars back in the Philippines where she is from.

I will take some pics of my wild feral homer pigeons for you, maybe you can tell for sure from their pictures. 

So far I have 3 of them that have made it back. I am happy about that.

Justin.


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## Al & Bobby (Oct 18, 2004)

Pigeon wars? Tell us more.


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## Vegas_Justin (May 4, 2011)

Al & Bobby said:


> Pigeon wars? Tell us more.


Pigeon Wars are really popular in the Philippines. 

Two, three, maybe even four loft owners in the same general area will agree to a Pigeon War. So they release all their birds to fly freely in a flock over the neighborhoods.

These flocks will eventually mesh up with the other owners flocks in the sky and in all the commotion some of the birds get mixed up or confused and end up returning home with the wrong flock. 

These birds arrive in lesser or greater numbers than they started out with originally. 

Then when the birds return, the owners count them. Their bands make it pretty easy to know what loft the birds came from. Some owners might loose half of their flock and others will gain just as many.

So now the captured bird’s fate depends on the owner. It might be kept and trained to fly with the new flock, or it might be ransomed back to the original owner.

The next war in a few days or a few weeks may have the totally opposite outcome. 

It's a high stakes game that is lots of fun.

Justin


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## Don Fischer (May 13, 2011)

Well this is intresting and makes perfect sence to me. Untill recently, I've had feral pigeons for about 25 yrs. Something I discovered about them is that they do home a lot better than most people will believe. It's about 75 road miles from my home to Bend, Ore and I have had birds make that trip home. There's a place about 50 road miles from here we used to turn them loose from a lot, they always made it home.

The difference I see in them is that the ferals are smaller birds and much less trusting than my homers. They are not as good parents either. I had one feral find it's way into my homer pen and sitting in there with the homers, it was a pathetic sight!

I found out about this homing ability in ferals by accident. I'd caught a few were I was working at the time and brought them home. It's about 50mi home from there. The next day, a saturday, I released one from Clarno, 15 road miles even farther. The next monday at work I found that bird back where I'd origionally caught it. It was strangely marked so pretty easy to recognize. Took it home that night and tied a piece of red yarn on a leg, poor mans leg band! Took it back to Clarno and truned it loose again. Next morning it was back at work!

We did have one strange feral when we first came here. I'd caught it in a barn near Scappose, Ore. Used it in a training session the next day and rather than going back where it came from, it flew into my pigeon pen there! We got over here and I built a loft and that bird would trap from the first day, we called it "Mom" but have no idea what gender it was. It lived out it's life here and was never used for training again, we had special birds and Mom was one. It was a black bird with a small white blaze on its forehead.


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## rackerman (Jul 29, 2009)

Justin, Welcome to PT. Thats pretty interesting on your Ferals'. I think 100 road miles for a feral is awesome..........


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