Passion for pigeons keeps fanciers’ eyes glued to the sky

Even when we look up, hoping to get a glimpse of the blue skies, we see rows and rows of roofs. Nowadays, you can really only watch the dance of the pigeons up in the blue skies above from the outer neighborhoods of the city, where the buildings are not so high and dense.

Now, our hobby has become simply making it home as quickly as possible through the traffic, and when you add the cold weather to the already dull and drab colors around us, it seems like the only color left in our lives is the red roofs of the city. For some, though, it is not the red ceramic tiles that lend color to their lives, but in fact the most entertaining hobby they could imagine that takes place on these roofs. These are people who say they have caught the “pigeon disease,” warning that once you are exposed to this disease, your eyes will never stray from the skies, looking for this bird.

You can find pigeon keepers almost no matter where you go in İstanbul. Since there is really not much space for keeping pigeons elsewhere, these pigeon fanciers generally keep and feed their birds in cages on the roofs of city homes. Of course, it is no easy thing taking care of pigeons. You have to go up to the roof twice every day, once early in the morning, and another time before sundown to both feed and fly your charges. In fact, experts at this business note that if you fail to fly your birds even for one day, their wings retract, and they lose their old form in the air. Of course, the element that gives the most pleasure in all this to pigeon lovers is when their birds somersault while in flight in mid-air. In fact, hundreds of lira can often be spent in pursuit of birds that can do those somersaults. Contests are entered and prizes are given as one way of making up for the many difficulties inherent in this hobby.

There are two basic categories when it comes to pigeon contests: There are the older birds, and the younger birds. Pigeon keeper Orhan Erikçi notes that there are sometimes thousands of applications from people all over Turkey to have their birds take part in these contests. Erikçi says he has been taking care of pigeons since he was only 12 years old and that now at the age of 36 he has raised hundreds and hundreds of pigeons. Actually, Erikçi tries to keep this love alive through a special group he formed: the Yenidoğan Pigeon Lovers and Keepers Association. This group meets on certain days of the week, and pigeon lovers who belong come together to sell some birds and add others to their cages. Erikçi, who says he won a first place prize in the past in a national contest, says: “Every day for three months, I made sure my bird trained. I would devote three hours of unbroken time a day to my pigeon. Then, as a result of all this, I received first prize in the ‘eke’ [mature bird] category.”

One regular member of this pigeon association is Uğur Kemal Gökbulut, a top-level director of a well-known company. Gökbulut says that coming and dealing with pigeons with other pigeon lovers is one way for him to distance himself from the stress of a fast-paced work life. Gökbulut, who lives in a luxury high-rise, notes that his love for his birds motivated him to build a cage for them on the very top floor of his apartment building. He explains: “This is the sort of thing that a love for pigeons drives you to do; I built them a cage on the very top floor, and the heating and feeding mechanisms are spectacular. I have given them nearly the same level of luxury as my own home.”

While raising, training and loving pigeons is a wonderful pastime, unfortunately thefts plague the world of pigeon keepers. Pigeon thieves often strike hard at people who have actually given years to training pigeons. It seems that none of the precautions taken yet have been successful at stopping these thefts. One pigeon trainer and keeper who declined to give his name described his own experiences along these lines. “I had spent much time training my birds for a contest. Someone who saw my pigeon in flight came up to me and asked if I would be willing to sell the bird. I didn’t want to. In fact, he even raised his offer to TL 1,000, but I still wouldn’t agree. Later, to make sure my birds weren’t stolen, I even surrounded their cage with electric wiring. But the thieves, who came at night to get the birds, risked even death and wound up breaking open the cage to take the birds.”

Through the heat of the summer and the cold of the winter

There are different seasonal difficulties in raising pigeons. In the summer a pigeon lover winds up spending hours and hours under the hot sun, watching the sunny skies to make sure a hawk doesn’t grab their birds. And then of course, there is the winter, when hours spent outside in the freezing air watching and training the birds can have its own difficulties. Still, true pigeon fanciers maintain their love for and dedication to their birds and are willing to face all of this to keep up their hobby.

One interesting method of getting a new bird that some pigeon lovers use is when they see a bird that they like just flying about on its own in the sky, they let their own birds out of the cage and up into the sky. This is done in the hope that the free bird spotted by the pigeon lover will somehow join the flock up in the sky, and eventually return with them to their cage. Of course, the pigeon fancier then throws down some food and tries to encourage the flock along with the new bird back into the cage. And thus a new pigeon can be added to the group.

Pigeon prices can fly high depending on bird type   

Prices for certain pigeons can at times fly as high as the birds themselves. Of course, this depends on factors such as the bird’s type and what sort of somersaults it does in flight. Some devoted trainers buy and sell birds for thousands of lira. And the best place to show off a bird is a pigeon contest; birders at these contests follow the events very closely, and the money traded for birds is quite high. Interestingly, pigeon fanciers also buy birds they have watched and liked very much with the intent of keeping these birds to help train their other pigeons.