Wilbur the pigeon

Wilbur arrived last August after a thunderstorm. He was clearly a racing pigeon, although when we eventually caught him, the ring on his leg had no idenfication markings. We gave him some water and assumed he would soon be on his way, but not a bit of it. Wilbur decided this was the place to stay and has been here ever since. We enjoy having him around, but he is getting bolder and bolder so that anyone visiting runs the risk of a pigeon landing on their head - we call him guard pigeon. He now spends his days trying to get into the house to be with me, which is touching, but I’m getting to the stage where I am under seige in my own house - windows closed. So just wondering if there is anyone out there who keeps pigeons and would like to reunite him with is own kind and not look on him as lunch. We live in the Gers.

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Just in case you have to fall back on the lunch option Jane. :crazy_face:

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Just the sort of daft reply I do not want.

Yes John, don’t be so silly - brambles and pigeon…

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I don’t know any pigeon fanciers personally, but maybe contact the association? Here…

Hi Jane,

Is he friendly enough for you to hold him and put him into a travelling box of some sort? If so, can you drive out for, say, 50 miles or so and then let him go. He may come straight back to your house, in which case you can find him another home or get into the racing pigeon game or the other possibility is that he may fly back to his original loft because he needs to be “reset” by setting him off as though he is racing. He probably realises that whilst he is at yours he is not to fly off because he is “home”.

Will be interesting to see what happens.

Thank you for the link Jane, but I don’t think anyone in the world of racing pigeons is going to be interested as he failed to find home.

Thank you for the advice Dave. Yes, we can catch him and do as you say. If you think that may reset his original homing instincts, it’s worth a try. I was thinking more along the lines of finding someone with a pigeon loft and other pigeons, so he could start to think as a pigeon again. At the moment, he thinks he is a human !

But maybe like with greyhounds they have a retirement home for ex-racing pigeons?

That would be nice, but unfortunately I hear they just wring their necks !

Yes, I you take a lost racing pigeon to someone who races them, most would just ring their necks. & if it finally found the loft from which it originated the same would probably happen.

Sad end. Hope you can reset Wilbur, or learn to love a house pigeon.

We are very fond of Wilbur but unfortunately, he is overly fond of us, like landing on a visitor’s head yesterday. I think if I release him somewhere else, he will just come straight back, so my only hope is to find someone who keeps pigeons (socially and not for food or racing) and try to rehabilitate him with his own kind.