Help please

[LamarshFish]

You are a pigeon genius, my birds are homers as far as my Knowledge goes. I decided to leave to a friends for an hour or 2 because some things take time and he may not be comfortable with me hanging around. He was previously at someones house in tampa, which is over 200 miles away from me. He has never flown from what ive been told and it showed when he first took flight. I have another older male that I'm bringing over to call him back. Hopefully it works, thanks allot!

I am very far from a pigeon genius lol, I'm just now learning about all of this, but I do have recent experiences with losses.

If you have a way to contact the person in tampa you may want to just give them the heads up to keep an eye out for the bird, but if a young bird like that attempted a 200 mile haul I'd imagine it wouldn't go too well (despite the fact that it may be a cake walk for an older homer).

Best of luck to you. I did a release last Saturday and all of my birds came back EXCEPT my favorite bird--a silver bar cock that had already been released, routed and homed back a few times, and was my most tame bird (would land on my arm to eat peanuts), and was definitely my smartest bird. He's still missing. My fiance is heartbroken and keeps asking about him, and doesn't even want more birds because of losing him, but I have now simply learned that it is part of it. When I lost my first birds a few months ago, which weren't even my favorites at all and I had no relationship with them, I stared at the sky for days wondering about when they'd come back, I'd look at ferals through binoculars to see if they had my leg bands, etc, but I now know that is just wasting time, it won't make them come back sooner. Even if you spotted your bird somewhere, you can't force it to come back. You just have to move on.

Part of the beauty and awesomeness of homing pigeons is the fact that they can be pets, but also have their liberty to fly freely. If you homing pigeons that won't do that, what is the point? Keep that mentality in mind. Also keep in mind that even your best and most experienced homers could get hit by a hawk. Hokum Coco on this forum said "don't ever fly a bird you're not willing to lose." It's tough to think about, since if it's your best bird you'd want it to have a free life flying, but it makes sense--if you aren't willing to deal with losing it, don't ever let it out..... Tough choices.

 

[Tristanw96]

I was an animal care technician for 6 years 4 of the years I worked with Cockatoos, African greys, Mccaws etc. I was nothing short of fascinated, I was so stricken by there intelligence and individuality that spent every moment of everyday trying to understand these birds. The one thing that you don't experience with these exotic birds are the freedom and beauty of watching them fly and return home. It is truly mesmerizing. Mike Tysons favorite pigeon is a silver bar. They are beautiful, I've been into pigeons for a month now and I love everything about it! My bird still has not returned but this is part of the experience! Thanks for all the great advice today!! Happy to be a part of the pigeon community.

 

[Tristanw96]

When i was 14 one of my smartest birds an African grey with an extreme vocabulary named Grey Poupon escaped my house via a window I left open and flew into I pine tree and I never seen him again. Lol I had forgot about that for a long time until now. Im 20 years old and feel like that same 14 year old missing my boy.

 

[Legendchicken]

Did he come back?! Im assuming its dark now where you live

 

[Tristanw96]

No, he hasn't returned home I have a boy that I got a few hours ago cooing away hopefully that will draw him in, they are social birds. It has just gotten dark here in FL so im hoping he is still perched above my house or making his way home by now, thanks for your concern though!

 

[Legendchicken]

Your welcome i do hope he comes back

 

[Hokum Coco]

I just want to know if there is a large chance he will return home,

Yes there is. I would say a 70% chance your bird will return. Exposing it's loft mate; Rattling a feed can and doing your cooing and whistling in the morning and evening especially may return some benefit keep it up.

On the other hand it is my experience if the pigeon is not home in 3 days you should be prepared to except the worst. There are always exceptions I had one bird that returned home after being written off for months. When it did arrive back to the loft it was black (covered in soot) with splashes of white. I thought it was a feral until I check the band and realized it was my solid white hommer that had gone missing for I am not sure how long. I figured it got trapped maybe in a fireplace and was nursed back to health. You may have guessed that he was named "Blackie" from that day forward which in a few weeks did not suit him in the least.

 

[Tristanw96]

He has returned!! He will be a great bird. I think I will release him again soon considering the amount of time he was gone. I think now is the best time to do so. Thank you all for the advice I am a really happy man right now!! Please let me know if releasing him in the next couple days would be a bad idea. Thanks everyone!

 

[biophiliac]

 

[Tristanw96]

Lol i know, I'm so excited!! Havnt been this happy to see a bird in my life, he is really clean to!!