Indonesian pigeon sells for $100,000 amid national racing boom

Indonesian pigeon sells for $100,000 amid national racing boom

Jayabaya

A pigeon named Jayabaya has become the most expensive bird ever sold in Indonesia. A racing pigeon in Indonesia has been sold for 1 billion rupiah ($101,700), breaking the national record for the most expensive bird ever sold in the country.

The male pigeon, named Jayabaya, was bought by Robby Eka Wijaya in the town of Cilodong in West Java to compete in Indonesia’s booming pigeon races.

Mr Wijaya bought the pigeon from his colleague after watching it compete in a number of different competitions.

He told the ABC he made an offer the owner could not refuse because the pigeon had “special features”, including a rare consistency and “stable mood”.

“One race can last over two days and nine rounds. Often birds can only perform for four rounds, but this bird is able to get into the top 20 at every competition,” he said.

Jayabaya competed against thousands of birds from across the country last year and received the highest score in the national competition, according to Mr Wijaya.

Pigeon racing is a traditional sport in Indonesia, mainly from the island of Java, but it has rapidly gained popularity ever since the creation of a national pigeon organisation.

Robby Eka Wijaya holds a sign of the pigeon he had just purchased named Jayabaya. The type of competition varies and includes speed racing, freestyle flying, as well as a table category, where the pigeons are expected to land back on a table at a certain time after flying.

In order to get Jayabaya to return during a competition, its owner calls out for him with his “girlfriend”, a female pigeon which shares the same cage as him, which Mr Wijaya says is a common practice.

“From what I’ve observed in the past 10 years, there are only two or three birds that are like him,” he said, adding that his friends has questioned his sanity over the amount he paid.

The popularity of pigeon racing in Indonesia has been partly attributed to high profit margins. Pigeons cost around 20,000 rupiah ($2) and the winnings can range from $7,500 to $10,000, or even a brand new car.

The registration cost to compete is also relatively low at a mere $13 to $16, according to the organisation of High Pigeon Fans Indonesia (PMTI).

However, Indonesian newspaper Kompas reports that the average participant pigeon racing competitions are anywhere between 1,500 to 2,000 people, making reaching the top 20 a feat in itself.

Mr Wijaya said it would be “easy” to be able to generate profit off Jayabaya, who is estimated to be two to three years old.

“There is already someone who is willing to spend 100 million rupiah ($10,200) for a set of eggs he fathers, but I won’t sell it,” he said.

In March this year, a Chinese buyer bought a racing pigeon for 1.252 million Euros ($1.98 million) during a pigeon auction by a Belgian breeder, the most expensive pigeon of all time.

The pigeon, named Armando, was described as the Lewis Hamilton of racing pigeons and holds a variety of records including best one day long distance pigeon in Belgium.

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Overpopulation has Wisconsin town putting pigeons on the pill

Overpopulation has Wisconsin town putting pigeons on the pill

 

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Business owners in La Crosse are putting pigeons on birth control – sort of.

Feeding stations atop downtown buildings include a contraceptive feed. It’s aimed at lowering reproduction in the birds that leave droppings on sidewalks, awnings and park benches.

Wayne Oliver, a member of the Downtown Mainstreet Board, tells WXOW that it’s the most successful idea the board has tried.

Maria Norberg, owner of a downtown coffee shop and food truck, says she supports anything that can cut down on the overhead threat to her customers.

Funding comes from a city beautification grant.

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Pigeon droppings equate to 230 parked cars on bridge.

Pigeon droppings equate to 230 parked cars on bridge.

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Crews tasked with cleaning a Saskatchewan bridge are in for a dirty job.

The City of Saskatoon said that over the last 50 years one of its bridges has accumulated nearly 350 tonnes of pigeon poop – which is roughly equal to 230 cars parked on the bridge.

It said the feces adds unnecessary weight and the pigeon droppings contain uric acid which can damage concrete, affecting the integrity of the bridge.

This also means the extermination of about 1,500 members of the feathered flock that makes the Sid Buckwold Bridge home.

The city said relocating or displacing the birds is not recommended because they are likely to fly back or move into other private properties or civic spaces. Homing pigeons are likely to return to their original roosting areas, making relocation difficult as a long term solution.

A local wildlife advocate is disappointed and questions why alternatives can’t be found that would allow the birds to live. “In Saskatchewan, a very, very, very common response is if it pisses you off, shoot it,” said Jan Shadick, volunteer director of Living Sky Wildlife Rehabilitation.

Regina and Vancouver rely on pigeon spikes, protective netting or cages to keep pigeons off their facilities. Toronto and Calgary do not practice Pigeon control.

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Let’s stick with pigeons for a moment.

Let’s stick with pigeons for a moment.

Occasionally, you see them munching on a pizza rind or some other recognizable discarded food, but most of the time they seem to be pecking at nothing at all.

I am not planning to start a pigeon Facebook enterprise, but unlike virtually all New Yorkers, I do not loathe pigeons and give them credit for living a tough life on the mean and unforgiving streets of Manhattan.

And if you actually stop and look at them, which no one does, their plumage can be quite striking. Yes they are plump and the neck-snapping walk is mind-boggling — what evolutionary rationale could that possibly have? — but they demonstrate an unrelenting pluck to survive in the city that I find admirable.

Let’s stick with pigeons for a moment.

Just like seagulls, you never see a young or old pigeon, and never a sickly one. They are all the same size and seem in excellent health. I’ve never seen a dead pigeon or a squished one, which is remarkable for all their bicycle- and car-dodging. Not to overthink this, for all of their daily vicissitudes they seem pretty content with their lives, although their expressionless faces could be masking all kinds of nameless dreads.

One activity that seems to definitely give them great pleasure is communal flight. As I look east from our 16th floor apartment, I often see sizable flocks of pigeons soaring in synchronized movements that have no purpose, just banking, turning this way and that, diving and climbing.

They are clearly playing. They will, as a group, alight on a random rooftop, cogitate for a while and then set off on another flight maneuver, happy as clams.

If there is an afterlife, this playful flying would not make me elect to come back as a pigeon. I’m on record as choosing to come back as a chickadee. But if I have no choice and I’m forced to come back as a pigeon, I could handle it. The key, it seems, is a sufficient stream of pizza rinds.

Seagulls seem a lot like pigeons. They are always scamming for food and can fly beautifully. They seem smarter than pigeons and have a more sculpted shape. Gratefully, they have eliminated the disturbing neck-snapping walk, and they are artful at catching food thrown at them by the bored human denizens of Crescent Beach.

Which brings me to a seagull story. It is a third-hand story and its veracity cannot be verified. It was told to me by my nephew on Cape Cod, and he is a known embellisher. There is a thin line between embellishment and prevarication, and I am pretty sure he was sticking to the embellishment side. Not betting my life on that, however.

It starts with a surf-casting fisherman and a nearby observing seagull. The seagull watches as the surf-caster baits up his hook and heaves it into the waves. This is repeated several times with no success, fish-catching-wise. This is where it gets interesting.

This story wants you to believe that a light goes on in the observing seagull’s brain. The light says one, there is food being flung into the air and two, I can fly. Ergo, an intercept is entirely possible. But the light does not fully grasp the concept of “fish hook.”

You probably see where this is going. A perfectly timed intercept is made and the hook lodges in the seagull’s beak, surprising both human and bird actors in this story.

Embellishment alert: The fisherman starts reeling in the seagull and eventually gets it on the beach where a concerned woman assists the fisherman to calm the seagull while he fetches his needle-nose pliers to extract the hook. The seagull is not pleased, and it takes a while to wrestle the hook out.

A moment passes as the humans and seagull digest what just happened. Another light goes on in the seagull’s brain. With good intentions, the concerned woman is carefully holding the seagull but gets no credit for this act of kindness. The light says take a nip of the woman’s cheek and get the heck out of here. End of story.

True story? We cannot be sure.

But it sure beats any pigeon story I know.

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Someone discarded 145 living pigeons this winter

Someone discarded 145 living pigeons this winter

WOLCOTT — Someone discarded 145 living pigeons this winter the way one throws out an empty disposable coffee cup — by tossing them into a trash dumpster.

The night caretaker at the northbound Interstate 65 rest area in White County found the first 57 birds in the middle of December as he took the trash out, said Kim Hoover of the Hoots to Howls Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in rural Pulaski County. Some of the birds trapped inside boxes died, she said.

She took the birds and found homes for most of them, keeping the blind and crippled birds at the rehabilitation center.

Then on Feb. 28, the caretaker found more boxes of birds in the same dumpster at the same rest area.

“Same mozzarella cheese boxes. Same person’s name and number on the leg ban,” she said.

The first group of birds found were standing in feces that were caked to their feet and matted in their feathers, Hoover said. It appeared they’d been in the dumpster for a while and were in poor health.

The second group was found in better condition and did not have trash piled on top of the boxes, indicating that they had not been in the dumpster that long, Hoover said.

That person’s name on the leg band is Bahman Ghassab from Dublin, Ohio, Hoover said. The bands also had a telephone number to reach Ghassab. The Journal & Courier called that number on Wednesday, but it is no longer a working number.

But after the find in December, Hoover said one of her associates did call the number, and Ghassab answered.

“He said he sold some birds to someone in Florida and in Illinois,” Hoover said, “and he would not give any more info than that.

“When asked why would you sell sick starving and injured pigeons and better yet why would someone buy them in this condition, the conversation ended,” Hoover said.

The Journal & Courier contacted John DeCarlo Jr., president of the National Pigeon Association. He checked the association’s membership list, and Ghassab is not a member.

“These birds don’t fly,” Hoover said.

The Journal & Courier texted photos of the birds to DeCarlo, who is in California.

“I don’t know why they don’t fly,” he said, noting this particular breed of pigeon is the Iranian high fliers.

The Iranian high fliers are capable of flight, unlike the one particular breed that Hoover mistakenly was told the rescued birds belonged to, DeCarlo said.

The birds might not fly because they are sick or are under fed or are under conditioned, DeCarlo said. Or they might have been altered so they can’t fly, he added.

Someone told Hoover the birds were likely part of an illegal gambling ring, but that doesn’t seem likely, according to DeCarlo.

The only gambling in the pigeon hobby is among racing pigeons, and these are not racing pigeons, he said.Bird Gone, Pigeon Gone, Pigeon problems, pigeon spikes, 1-877-4NO-BIRD, 4-S Gel, Bird Control, Pigeon Control, bird repellent, Bird Spikes, sonic bird repellent, stainless steel bird spikes, bird spikes Vancouver, Ultra Sonic Bird Control, Bird Netting, Plastic Bird Spikes, Canada bird spike deterrents, Pigeon Pests, B Gone Pigeon, Pigeon Patrol, pest controller, pest control operator, pest control technician, Pigeon Control Products, humane pigeon spikes, pigeon deterrents, pigeon traps, Pigeon repellents, Sound & Laser Deterrents, wildlife control, raccoon, skunk, squirrel deterrent, De-Fence Spikes, Dragons Den.

The flightless pigeon breed is known as parlor rollers. They have been genetically bred not to fly, and when they are nervous or excited, they roll, Decarlo said. There is a competition among parlor rollers to see whose bird can roll the furthest, but it’s not cruel because this is the natural way these birds behave, according to several pigeon experts interviewed Wednesday by the Journal & Courier.

Everyone interviewed Wednesday was incensed by the way these birds were discarded.

Hoover said no one seems interested in investigating it as a criminal case.

“From what I’m told, they’re not pets; they’re not farm animals, so nobody does anything,” she said.

National Pigeon Association Secretary/Treasurer Tim Heidrich of Georgia doesn’t see why it couldn’t be prosecuted.

“To me, it’s like animal cruelty,” Heidrich said. “There are ways to get rid of them without being cruel about it.”

“There are quite a few small shows,” he said. “You can go to these things and sell them — give them away to the kids.”

DeCarlo suggested giving unwanted pigeons to 4Hers so they can learn the hobby and show them.

Finding so many birds thrown away begs the question of whether other birds met with a similar fate only went undiscovered at other locations.

“We don’t know if this is the first time,” Hoover said. “Is it happening at other rest parks? We don’t know.

“I just wish he’d stop. These birds don’t deserve to be thrown out.”

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