Thoroughbreds of the Sky

            Beside the four legged Thoroughbred we normally think of, Central Oregon is also blessed with a “Winged Thoroughbred”, the modern day “Racing Pigeon”. 

            The ancient Egyptian’s discovered the bird’s homing ability and started using them as messengers long before the birth of Christ.  Reuters News Agency, the largest in the world got their start with “Pigeon Posts” long before the telegraph.  And durning the 1^st and 2^nd World Wars Allied Homing Pigeons successfully delivered 98% of all messages sent, despite in some cases suffering multiple gun shot wounds.   Allied Homing Pigeons are responsible for saving thousands of lives and several birds have won America and England ’s highest honors.   

            The concept of “Pigeon Racing” was started by the Belgians over 200 years ago, and is now enjoyed by one out of every 10 families in Europe, second only to Soccer as a National Past Time.   Basically the pigeons are transported several hundred miles away and released to race home.  The modern day racing pigeon is truly the “Thoroughbred of the Sky”, the perfect “Flying Marathon Machine”,   having a heart twice the size of a common street pigeon for super blood flow, and chest muscles being 1/3 of it’s body weight.  The modern Racing Pigeon is able to maintain over 50 miles an hour for up to 16 hour straight, covering as much as 600 miles non stop to reach home.  Champion Racing Pigeons, like Champion Horses have sold for as much as $250,000, but in most cases pigeons are freely swapped amongst club members.   

            Pigeons are not the dirty, disease ridden bird that some people think.  Pigeons carry no known diseases that are transmitted to man or other animals.  They are in fact a very clean bird, which has giving them a bad reputation.  Instead of dirtying their own home, they prefer to back over the ledge and deposit their droppings outside, unfortunately sometimes on some unsuspecting passerby.  

            Racing Pigeons are usually entered in the race Friday afternoon (basketed as we call it). A paid driver then transports the birds to the release point, which in our case can be Burns, Ontario , Boise , American Falls , or Pocatello .  At a given time, usually 7AM all the birds are released to fly home.  The big American Races can race as many as 5 or 6 thousand birds.  The big European Races can be as many as 250,000 birds all released at once in France to race home to England, Holland, Belgium, Germany, and all over Europe.  Here in Central Oregon we usually have two to three hundred birds racing on any given Saturday.   

The Birds are all released at once and race home to their respective lofts.  Every flyer’s loft has a survey done from the release point down to the nearest foot.  When a pigeon arrives home it is scanned electronically, or clocked as it enters the loft, right down to a thousandth of a second.  From this you just divide air time into distance and get a speed in Yards Per Minute.  The bird that flew the fastest average speed is the winner.  

The Central Oregon Racing Pigeon Club, or CORP as we are called, is a very social, family oriented club.  We have members in Madras , Culver, Crooked River Ranch, Redmond , Prineville, and Bend .  Over the course of the summer we meet every Friday Afternoon in Redmond to “Basket” our birds for Saturday’s Race, and then usually have dinner together after basketing.  We meet every Tuesday at Regio’s Restaurant in Redmond for Lunch, and have several social Pot-Lucks during the summer.   

Pigeon Racing is a low cost sport the whole family can enjoy.  For children it can be tied in with 4-H or FFA.  It takes only a small shelter to get started and the Central Oregon Racing Pigeon Club is always looking for new members.  For more information we can be contacted at 541-480-7593, 541-350-6777, or 541-350-1819.  On the web you can visit us at   www.corpc.org

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