Flighter the Homing Pigeon

July 7, 1998:
This afternoon around 4:00pm, I started going out the front door and noticed a pigeon walking around on the driveway! I know a lot of people don't like pigeons, but I do! :-) I think a lot of the pigeon colors are pretty, and I probably since we do not see pigeons too often, I like them more. Until today, we have never had a pigeon on our property! Well anyway, when I saw him, I came back in and told everyone. We watched him as he ate gravel and some millet seeds that were out there for the doves. We got some good looks, and a little video footage.

After having the pigeon out there for 10 minutes or so, I went out with the video camera and a handful of pet cockatiel seed mix(lots of different kind of seeds in the mix). I kept sslloowwlly going toward him, and put the handful of seed on the driveway. I was about 20 feet from him. I then slowly started coming back, and was 20 feet away from the seed when he began to eatit; I was still getting him on film. After he had eaten his choice seeds and started walking around, I dropped some sunflower seeds on the ground at my feet. He came closer until he was only 12-15 feet away! :-)

I came back in and the pigeon continued to eat. He came down the walk to the house, and came 10 feet from the house looking for seeds.

About 20 minutes later, I went out again with more cockatiel seed, and put a handful half way between the house and where I had put it before. He didn't find the seed though, and 6 doves came down. About ½ hour later, I went back out and put two handfuls of cockatiel seed near each other. We watched him when he ate this time, after I came back in. His favorite food is safflower seeds, followed by buckwheat and black oil sunflower seeds. After we was stuffed full, he started walking toward the house again, then flew. It looked like he was flying right for the window we were at but, in fact, he landed on the roof about 2 feet above the window, then walked up to the peak of the roof.

The pigeon sat on the roof and rested for at least 45 minutes. Chandra (sister) looked out of the window just in time to see him fly. He flew around the neighborhood, and and a few minutes after he took off, we watched him dive back down onto the roof. He sat there till about 7:00pm approximately, when he left (we didn't see it) for the night.

It is obvious that this is a racing/homing pigeon, because he had a blue leg band on his left leg and a green band on his right leg. I wonder where he was from?

July 8, 1998:
The pigeon came back today and was on the roof a lot. He sat there in the rain for most of the day and came down to eat a few times. He again left at aproximately 7:00pm, Eastern.

July 9, 1998:
This morning at 8:30am, I looked out the window there were doves on both platforms and the ground, Blue Jays flying around in the trees and going onto the feeders, and about 3 Rose Breasted Grosbeaks in the trees about to go onto a hopper feeder. Then a couple of doves flew off of the ground, and the grosbeaks flew. All of the other birds stayed. I started looking on the ground for predators, and just then, a Cooper's Hawk came diving out of a tree (!?!). His dive was pretty slow, but even so, he almost grabbed a dove off of one platform (he missed by a foot, because the doves finally flew!). He then turned around, and went back by the rest of the feeders, where the Blue Jays were. The Blue Jays started jaying, and flew in all directions. I heard one or two squawk, but I don't know if he got one or not, on his flight away.

The pigeon did not came back this morning. I went and restocked the feeders at nearly 2:00pm. When I was done, I came back. I was getting near the house, and looked at my dog, about 40 feet away. I then looked back in the direction that I was walking to see the pigeon 5 feet away, running to avoid my approaching feet! I had been walking at a "normal" pace! I put some sunflower seeds on the ground there, and he kept running until he was 20 feet away.

I came in the house, grabbed some cockatiel seed, and put it around where I put the sunflower seeds. I came in and he wandered over and ate the sunflower seeds. I had heard that they like cracked corn, so I took some out and approached him. He kept coming closer till he was 20 feet away, then flew to the roof of the house.

Later in the afternoon, he came down and didn't want to eat the cracked corn. We put more safflower out for him. He came down twice more, but he was interrupted. Once, the door opened and scared him, the other time, a vehicle came in the driveway.

After sitting on the burning hot roof all day, he left around 7:45 pm. I got to look at him with my binoculars when he was close to the house. His left leg has a blank pale blue band. His right leg has a light green band. On the green band was:

** 96 1192
WW

I can't make it look the same by typing! :-) The ** is where there was something I didn't get a chance to read.

July 10, 1998:
We first saw the pigeon at 9:00 am this morning. He stayed around all day. We left to go visit some friends at 5:30 or so and when we got back around 8:30pm, he was gone.

July 11, 1998:
I went outside at 7:45am this morning, and the pigeon was on the roof already; the safflower seeds on the driveway were gone. Around 9:30am or so, he came back down onto the driveway and I got to read the other two missing letters on the green band! Now, the complete band looks like this:

CU 96 1192
WW

According to a website I found, this is what the band means:
CU = Canadian Racing Pigeon Union
WW = A member's ID of the CU.
96 = The year that the pigeon was banded. He is 2 years old.
1192 = The pigeons individual ID number

The pigeon stayed around until about 5:00pm. We checked for him, but he was not around. About 45 minutes later, I looked out the window to see 20 Mourning Doves with him in the middle, eating the seed on the driveway. When the doves flew, he went onto the roof. A while later, I went outside, and he was gone again. I went out to the clothes line, where my mom was and informed her. Just then, he same soaring in like a mini jet over the tops of some trees, where a neighbor has their pond. He soared in, and landed on the roof; I wonder if he went to get a drink? 5 minutes later, he was again gone. I went around back, to make sure that he wasn't on the other side of the roof. Just then, again, he came soaring like a jet, and landed on the roof. He was around for 20-30 minutes before Chandra saw him go South-West toward a neighbors house. That was the last that we saw of him tonight.

July 12, 1999:
The Pigeon did not came back today. I guess he must have gone back to Canada. We will try to get contact with the CU tomorrow, and I will let you know what we find out!! I would like to know where he came from, and where in Canada he is headed.

We finally managed to get in contact via phone with someone at the CU and got some information about Flighter's owner; his name, address and phone number. It is expensive to call Canada (over 50 cents a minute!), so I chose to write to the owner. I asked if he ever did make it back, where he was released, etc. I never did get a reply, and it has now been over a year since he was here. I may try writing to him again.

[ Return to Benjamin's Wild Bird Homepage ]