Racing Pigeon Insider

01/06/2026

"Why Are Europeans Still Passionate About Pigeon Racing?"

On May 23, 2026, the prestigious Bourges I National Race officially kicked off in Belgium.

A total of 46,444 racing pigeons were entered in this single event:

🕊️ 22,975 old birds
🕊️ 23,469 yearlings

The pigeons were released from Bourges, France, and raced back to lofts across Belgium.

Many people assume pigeon racing is a fading tradition.
However, the numbers tell a different story.

Just one national race attracted more than 46,000 competitors, a scale that rivals or even exceeds the attendance of many professional sporting events.

What is even more interesting is that the number of yearlings exceeded the number of old birds this year. This suggests that new blood continues to enter the sport, with breeders actively investing in future generations of racing pigeons.

For many enthusiasts, Bourges I is more than just a race.
It is an important test of breeding quality, racing performance, and the future of the sport.

Perhaps pigeon racing is not disappearing at all.

Instead, it is evolving into a modern international industry—combining tradition, genetics, technology, and global competition.

Did You Know?

If all 46,444 pigeons were released at the same moment, the flock would stretch across the sky like a moving cloud—creating one of the most spectacular sights in the world of animal sports.

Have you ever seen thousands of pigeons released at once? 🌤️
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1279545021013697

25/09/2025

Pigeons in Copenhagen

02/03/2025

13/10/2022

To avoid any bad consequences caused by hating flying home, the fanciers need to provide a comfortable and serviced nest to pigeons.

However, in order to enhance the pigeons’ ability to cope with the competition and to improve the flying speed and returning rate, it's necessary to force and train pigeons by homing flight frequently.

Especially, the fanciers usually need to drive away pigeons from the home and don’t let them return to force them to accept the long-time home flying training.

What should fanciers do when at the ends of the scale?

The fanciers in Taiwan adopt a training method by "following the natural rules”.

1. All-day Providing food
2. No driving with pigeons
3. Flying freely

The fanciers also need to put emphasis on the management of the dove cage and intimate training.

By taking these methods, the returning rate of the pigeons that are fed by these fanciers is relatively higher than others; however, the fancier doesn’t mention the speed and rank.

The author of the article thinks the “follow the natural rule” is beneficial to the returning rate and is useless to the speed and rank.

One of the pigeon fanciers in Taiwan claims to train in an extremely high amount of exercise by homing flight every day for 5 to 8 hours.

What’s more, he believes that forcing pigeons to fly by blowing the whistle, lighting the firecracker and flagging the colored flag is more efficient to train the pigeons.

His theory comes from the "excessive recovery" of sports training.

"excessive recovery": After a large amount of exercise, the pigeon will be fatigued. But after rest and recovery, the physical strength can not only recover as before, but also exceed the original level.
In fact, these two opposite training ways are a good-try; however, both of them don’t mention the result.

Does the speed and returning rate increase after training in this way?
We’ll discuss it in the next post.

03/09/2022

[ Balance between Physical Training and Homing Ability ]

When it comes to pigeon training, every pigeon fancier has their own unique approaches.
Beginners might be confused when they receive too much different information on all hands.

This article takes into account the physical training and homing ability of pigeons.
Hope this post will give those who are new to this field a hand.

Pigeon racing is a great test of stamina (energy) and intelligence for pigeons.
The purpose of training pigeons is to build up their strength, endurance and wilt.

Pigeons' inherent ability is to fly home for their companion, nest, and egg or mating.
We just use this point to hold racing pigeon games.
Therefore, fanciers should cultivate and strengthen the love and dependency of pigeons for their home.

15/07/2022

[ Tips for Training - Part 2 ]

Second, pigeons need more nutrients during training. The demand for Calcium will also be higher than usual.
Calcium not only affects the pigeon bones but also the muscles, feathers and organs.
Many pigeon fanciers say that there is a great demand for Calcium health minerals during the training period.
In fact, Calcium health mineral is not enough, you could add some bone and Calcium powder to ensure nutritional needs is good enough for the training.

Third, molting often coincides with the training period.
Pigeons are weak when molting, so green watery droppings are often to see at this moment.
Give nutrients-red clay to pigeons every few days can effectively avoid watery droppings and help pigeons to expel the dry f***s out.

The composition, appearance and smell of the droppings indicate the pigeons’ state of health.
Any change in the normal condition of the droppings provides the pigeon fancier with a serious indicator of any disturbance in the health of pigeons.
To become more attentive to detail that will avoid big problems.

25/06/2022

[ Tips for Training - Part 1 ]

Nowadays, part of pigeon fanciers still focus on the pigeon descent, but they rarely talk about the situation of raising and training pigeons.
Because those pigeon fanciers believe that having a famous descent can definitely get excellent results.
In fact, many pigeons of well-known descent still get poor rank in the race.
If you don't feed your pigeons and train them in proper methods, even the pigeon with the best descent might not have a good race performance.
So, please be careful with all the details as training pigeons.
This article is going to introduce 3 parts to share some tips for you.

First, in the current race schedule, the time to train the pigeons is exactly the time of pigeon deplumation.
It's also the weak tiem for racing pigeons.
If you would like to train at this moment, please check the physiological condition of the pigeons.
Most pigeons cannot be forced to fly in the deplumation period,and they need a lot of nutrition during this period.
Don't give a lot of scavenging feed at this time, and only add nutritious feed.
Too much scavenging feed is not good for molting and pigeons' health.

20/05/2022

[ Pigeon Training Stages ]

Stage III — Competition

After the 300km to 500km race, pigeons should take a rest for 2 to 5 days before resuming tossing.

If you want to win the prize at 300km, the best way is to fly twice between 150km and 200km; if you want to win the prize at 500km, fly twice at 300km.

With the development of the pigeon collecting process, more and more pigeon owners are willing to participate in the race, so there are more and more short-distance competition. Pigeon owners also take this kind of competition to train their pigeons as a best training method.

11/05/2022

[ Pigeon Training Stages ]

Stage II – Tossing

After 10 to 13 times of tossing, pigeon fancier should take pigeons to participate in 300km competition; when tossing reaches about 20 times, pigeon fancier should take pigeons to participate in 500km competition.

When tossing, it should be from near to far. After 50 to 60 kilometers of fixed flight training, the distance can be extended to 100 kilometers.

After three or four consecutive days of 100km, the pigeons should be allowed to rest for a day. If the racing pigeons have tossed for more than 3 hours, they should take a rest next day.

The reason is that no matter how short distance the tossing is, even if it is only 50 kilometers, if they fly in the bad weather, it should be calculated as the pigeons fly 72 kilometers. If the pigeons return in 3 hours, it is equal to fly more than 200 kilometers. Once a pigeon returns more than 6 hours late, it is equal to fly more than 400 kilometers.

29/04/2022

[ Pigeon Training Stages ]

Pigeon training can be divided into 3 stages, from loft-flying to competition.
We will write 3 posts to explain what you could do in each stage before the official race.

Stage I – Loft Flying

Loft Flying starts about 25 days in the morning and afternoon before the tossing.
The pigeons fly last for about 40 minutes in the very beginning. During this period, it is best to plant a flag at the loft so that they can recognize their loft easily.
Increasing by 5 minutes every day and gradually to 1 hour in the morning and evening.

Of course, in the later stage of loft training, pigeons can fly for about 1.5 hours in the morning and about 1 hour and 20 minutes in the afternoon.
It's useless to fly for too long.

To meet the physical fitness requirements of tossing, loft flying is the inevitable preparation period.

"How to know your pigeon is qualified for tossing?"

Light:
After 10 days of loft-flying training, the excess fat of pigeons has been consumed due to continuous high-intensity home flight training.
The endocrine system of the pigeons has been readjusted.
So that some pigeons have lost water in the early stage of training.
The pigeon is lighter at this time, and its fur is looser.

Heavy:
After 15 days of home flying training, passive home flying training has been transformed into happy flying.
At this time, the pigeons will fly away from the loft, and return after half an hour.
Pigeons enter the loft quickly, eat a lot of food, and build muscle.
At this time, the pigeon owner should supplement the amount of water according to the amount of exercise.
Most the pigeons will gain weight suddenly.

Red:
When the home training reaches about 25 days, some racing pigeons will shed the dander on the abdominal muscles, revealing the red pectoral muscles.