Visiting bird..has bands around legs

[Jakico]

For the past few weeks a small white bird had been hanging out. It was even in the coop one day. It allows us to get pretty close. Today I noticed bands around the legs. We found out from the neighbors the last owner had homing pigeons in the coop. He used them to teach his dogs to hunt, I guess. Could this be
One of them? We’ve been in the house almost three years and this is first we’ve seen of the bird.

 

[ZedikerStation]

That looks like a racing pigeon. It looks like the yellow band is the "registered" band. I can't see the letters and numbers, but if it is registered, you will find enough information to find the owner by tracking who sold the band. You could feed it wild bird seed and water, but I'd keep it away from the flock. Never know what it might be carrying!

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

That’s a homing pigeon. Homing pigeons are the ones used as racers. They’re domestic, so can’t survive too long in the wild, as they’re vulnerable to predators and don’t know how to find their own food.

 

[neo71665]

What they said. Feed it in you want but I wouldn't let it near my flock. Aint no telling what cooties it has.

We found a dead one in our pasture a few years back. Contacted the owner and he was thankful. Best we could figure out was some idiot winged it thinking it was a dove.

 

[Jakico]

It kept going into the coop....I locked the doors and we caught it. It’s sitting in a dog kennel away from the birds right now. I don’t want it near my flock but I can’t watch the coop 24/7 and it keeps going in there. I contacted the organizations it’s has listed but no luck so far.

 

[cmom]

For the past few weeks a small white bird had been hanging out. It was even in the coop one day. It allows us to get pretty close. Today I noticed bands around the legs. We found out from the neighbors the last owner had homing pigeons in the coop. He used them to teach his dogs to hunt, I guess. Could this be
One of them? We’ve been in the house almost three years and this is first we’ve seen of the bird.

It's a pigeon. If you are able to read the numbers on the bands you can find out who owns it and where it came from. There is a website where you can enter the band numbers.
https://www.pigeon.org/

 

[Krugerrand]

I'm anxious to hear what you learn!

 

[cmom]

Over the years some have shown up here. There is a pigeon racing club about an hour and a half away from us in Spring Hill Florida. They bring their pigeons up to the Ocala area and release them to fly back to Spring Hill but some have stopped here for a day or two before continuing their journey. One pigeon was originally from Oklahoma and was sold to people in Spring Hill so the information from the leg band was from the Oklahoma owner.

 

[Jakico]

I called the club and was given the phone number of the “owner” I did a quick reverse look up and was confused because it showed a car dealership. Thought perhaps they did a dove release as a promotional event. I called and spoke to a woman. We had a fairly big language barrier. She said I had called a dealership...however the bird belonged to her father in law. And it would leave soon. I explained it has been around for almost a month. That it has been trying to move into to my chicken coop. She said oh well just keep it. I tried to explain I didn’t really want it and she just just kinda kept saying it would leave. I told her I’d call back if it was still here in a week. It’s not around today, perhaps being caught and put in a dog kennel scared it away for good. We will see if it returns at dusk