Raptor-safe pigeons?
Now and then Tumbler species with this definition are being offered for sale, which is not really right since there are no such pigeons. There are flying pigeons that react very early to predatory birds and others that only realize it when they are in their claws. We pigeon breeders can have some influence on the behavior of the pigeons during breeding.
Which raptors are dangerous to pigeons and how do they hunt? The peregrine falcon is a flight hunter; he can only catch his prey whilst it is flying. Therefore when the pigeons are sitting on a roof or elsewhere, they are safe from that raptor. He only attacks the pigeons when they are at a certain height. Mostly he comes from above at high velocity, which is why he often only injures them. With that speed he cannot grasp a pigeon, but rather injures or kills it at first encounter. Often he repeats this several times trying to seize the prey, which he seldom manages. That’s why there are all these injured pigeons. Dangerous as well are the goshawk and the female of the sparrow hawk (the male is too small to catch a pigeon). Both species are surprise hunters and this means they are waiting in a tree or bush for our pigeons, to then attack fast at short distance. If a pigeon happens to be in a goshawk’s claws it is doomed. For this reason there shouldn’t be any big trees in the neighborhood of a pigeonry in which the enemy could hide.
I breed Tipplers since 1996 and I also train with them. In the past years the peregrine falcon has killed a little more than 200 of my pigeons. These pigeons were worth about 9’800 Swiss francs. This just on the side. The crazy thing about it though is that most of the time he only injures the pigeons badly, so that they do not have the strength to fly home. That way they die a cruel death!! (see: www.flugtippler.ch link “disadvantages”)
What should we look for especially with our flying pigeons? As I mentioned above I mainly lost my pigeons because of the peregrine falcon. Goshawk and sparrow hawk have only slim chances of catching one of my pigeons, since my pigeons never fly under 30m in height. In the last 15 years I have looked at the following criteria while breeding Tipplers.
1. That all Tipplers have the same color. If the raptor attacks a flock of pigeons in which all have the same color he will need more time to fix on one pigeon. And when he hesitates for only one second longer this can save a pigeon’s life. My Tipplers are almost all blue with 2 black stripes. I don’t think the color or the design plays a role, the main thing is that they all look the same.
2. In the territory of a peregrine falcon the pigeons should not fly too high. My Tipplers for example fly mainly the height of a church tower. If they are valiant whilst flying they have a chance to hide in the trees or bushes when a peregrine falcon attacks. Goshawks and sparrow hawks cannot do serious harm to pigeons flying in great height. In the beginning I also had Tipplers that flew in great heights and had several white feathers. Those were all killed by the peregrine falcon.
3. I look that I only breed pigeons that have flown well for several seasons. Such pigeons have survived many attacks of predatory birds, are therefore more sensitive to them and will give this trait along to their young. Of course never to all of them!
4. When buying pigeons I make certain that they have already been confronted with raptors, that they therefore bring a certain sensitivity along. I know a Tippler breeder who bought Tipplers that haven’t been confronted with pigeon fiends for generations. The young of those pigeons where being easily plucked out of the air by diverse raptors.
These four points are of course no guarantee that the pigeons are going to be “raptor-safe”. But the losses will diminish a little. At the competitions I still have to count with being disqualified despite these measures. Because the pigeon, which has flown to safety after a raptor-attack will stay there quietly for a while. Often it lasts more than an hour before it flies forth. After that it means nothing if the other pigeons have kept on flying. For me it is always a highlight to see all pigeons flying again after an attack. Is there something more beautiful that watching our Tipplers fly? The answer is clearly no.
Last but not least here are two examples of especially brave Tipplers. There is Nr. 04/2478, a white colored female, very muscular and bigger than the others. Her mother by the way came from Sprf. E. Terwege who sadly passed away much too early. Since she was white I did not give her long to live, but saw her already as raptor food. But I was wrong! She flew three seasons successfully, was always attacked by raptors first but has survived all attacks. Only twice she had to be sewn together by the vet. I had actually not wanted to take her into breeding because of her special coloring. But looking at her accomplishments I had to say that such a pigeon belonged into the breed. Until today I have not regretted my decision and fortunately she mostly has blue offspring.
Then there is the pigeon Nr. 07/2625, blue and very small. She also flew three seasons. Her last flight was on the 26.6.2009, after that she should have gone into breeding. But that night she didn’t come back to the pigeonry. That wasn’t anything special because the team had got a visit from the peregrine falcon shortly before landing. For me it was therefore clear that she waited hidden until morning. Sadly she never came back home. During the three seasons she flew 97 times and has survived all raptor attacks without injuries. I would have bet a lot of money that the raptor would never get this pigeon. But as I mentioned: There are no raptor-safe pigeons!
Walter Stettler, CH-4102 Binningen, www.flugtippler.ch