Introduction to Pigeons

A huge variety of birds are living on our planet earth and pigeons are just one of them. Pigeon flying and breeding was taken up as a hobby by fanciers since ancient time. Pigeons fall under two categories, wild and domestic. The common wild pigeon, known as the blue rock pigeon or rock dove is ‘Columba livia’. There are more than 300 species of pigeons in the world and most of the breeds are hybrid varieties of ‘Columba livia’ for example: tumblers, pouters, carrier, jacobian, fantail, etc. They differ by their flying ability like highflyers, low flyers, fancy pigeons and racing pigeons. Different countries have their own specific breeds. Fanciers keep them as their own choice or interest. There are different flying competitions organized by different countries for different kind of pigeons. In India there are 386 different breeds of pigeons.

Pigeons can be classified on the basis of nature of living and on the flying abilities. There are also some physical characteristics by which wild/domestic pigeons can be distinguished. Some varieties of Pigeons have homing ability. The navigational ability of pigeons has become popular interest for scientists.  Many theories have been published on homing abilities of pigeons. Highflyer pigeons also show navigational skills in the region of flying. They navigate with the help of Geographical map settled in their brain.