Does anyone know anything about pigeons?

Here's a lovely story about one brave pigeon which saved some lives in WW2:
www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-17138990
He was a Scot [smile).

They can encounter all sorts of difficulties when racing - not least of them the weather. We had a wood at the back of our last house and we found one wandering about trailing its wing. We followed it for a bit before DH managed to pick it up. I had a friend living nearby whose husband - a retired senior civil servant - was a pigeon keeper. He had an extensive loft system at the top of his garden. In his study he had rafts of record books with bird ring numbers and managed to trace our bird to someone who lived in Ealing. He thinks the bird must have been blown into something and damaged its wing which fortunately wasn't broken and the owner came up to fetch it a few days later. Left in he wood, it would probably have ended up being supper for a fox!

A few years ago we too had a racing pigeon live with us for a few days. I did contact the owner (in Lincolnshire, we're in Norfolk) through a racing pigeon site I found on the Internet and he said the bird was mid race from the continent and would be thirsty. Just give it a dish of water and bird food if we had any and let it rest. It hung around a couple of days eating our wild bird mix, and then went on its way. And I got a message from the owner to say it had reached home safely which was nice.

I had a racing pigeon come down in my garden a couple of years ago it looked very poorly indeed with feathers all puffed up. I wasn't sure it would survive at first.
I left it water and fed it bird seed and after about three days it perked up. It tried flying around a few times then the next day actually took off and got back to its loft.

I did not manage to catch it but got close enough to read it's number. The owner said that it and a few other young birds set loose had encountered really bad cold weather and were exhausted. I became quite fond of him.

Yes, it does say that you should 'contain' the pigeon. However, for a few hours a day there is a 'chat' facility, which would help to provide OP with more information & reassurance.
I think they usually reckon 48 hours is a reasonable time to rest & recover, and yes, it will more likely go on its way if fed & watered (I thought OP had done this, but on re-reading,probably not)

And yes, it is a good bit of history to have in the family - we have also inherited a prize silver rose bowl (which was quite valuable) and we fill it on special family occasions.

Give him/her some water and food (not bread) It was very hot yesterday and he/she might have got dehydrated and disorientated.

Even better catch it (given up on he/she) and notify owner, who'll be anxiously looking for it to return.

Just noticed MH's post - good advice.

We had a racing pigeon in our garden for three days last week. I checked the web site but you had to 'contain' the pigeon first before contacting them. However, it said to provide food and water and having regained it's strength it would probably carry on it's journey. Crushed up a few cornflakes in a tub and also put some water out - when I got home later it had gone, so had the cornflakes!

nanna that's a good bit of history to have in your family

Thanks Nannarose. I will have a look.

Oh, and I think that small worries are OK on a day like this - they are what makes up human.

On the link I posted, there is a facility to 'chat'. You could tell 'Jim' that you don't want to handle the pigeon, and he will suggest what to do.

Our family bred racing pigeons until generation ago, and supplied them to the Government during WW2.

I should have looked in the back garden - he was there. I have shooed him out. I will go out later and see if he is still around but I don't think there is anything I can do.

Apart from being too numerous in some places (eg Trafalgar Square) they're wonderful birds. During WW2 they carried messages between France and England, to and from Resistance workers. They must have helped to avoid several disasters.
There's a room devoted to them at the Bletchley Park museum.

Good news, GracesGran! I'm sure he benefitted from his brief respite on your windowsill ?.

How small our everyday worries seem on a day like this but I thought I should let you know that my little friend seems to have flown on his way. The front window ledge gets the sun for an hour or so first thing so hopefully he felt warmed by it and able to fly on.

Thank you all so much. I really do have a bit of a thing about birds so I don't think I could pick it up. He kept looking in but I think he has settled down now. He is probably reasonably safe on the window ledge. His neck has beautiful colours on it and he is safer where he is than in the back garden as next door have a cat and it's quite a wicked one (it attacks people so I don't think the pigeon would stand a chance).

It is fairly warm so I think he will be OK overnight. I haven't got any bird food and I don't really want to encourage it so I'll wait and see if he is there in the morning.

I can't thank you enough for being there. I am going to close the curtains. It seems a bit mean but I will be able to relax a bit more

Oh no

We just got back from a few days away and found the imprint of a large bird on a back window, but can't find an injured bird so hope it flew off again.

Sorry if this is alarming ... but we just had a similar situation with a pigeon coming to our glass patio door just yesterday evening, and settling. There's bird food and water on our patio so I didn't think that it wanted that, we shoo-ed it, it kept wandering back. This morning I found it in the same place, keeled over, it had died in the night.

It is obviously a racing bird. It may have been blown off course during a race, or suffered some trauma that has rendered it temporarily unable to fly. If you can get a look at the numbers on the rings, you may be able to contact a local pigeon club who could track the bird's owner. Try not to feed it. We had a racing pigeon hanging around for three weeks a couple of years ago, but we couldn't get it to come close enough to read the ring markings. Just as we had given up on it leaving, it left!

Bless it's little heart!

If it has rings, it def. belongs to someone, and is probably used to being handled.

If you are not bird phobic, pick it up, approaching it quietly and putting your hand/s over its body from above (hope this makes sense!) and you should be able to read the info on the ring.

The rings mean it is almost certainly a racing pigeon:

www.rpra.org/stray-reporting/

as they are usually quite tame, it is easy to look at the rings, but this includes instructions as to what to do

We had a pigeon that landed in our garden a couple of times and didn't appear to want to leave. DH managed to hold it and I found the telephone number on the ring and telephoned the owner - we thought he would want to collect it but in fact he just said to leave it and it would find its way home on its own.

The odd thing was that the telephone number was only one digit different from ours although its home was a couple of miles away.

It's probably tired, hungry and thirsty so if you have food and water out for the birds it may use you as a pit-stop and then be on its way.

Actually, this says something different, but our pigeon definitely had a phone number on its ring:

www.homingpigeons.co.uk/lostpigeon.htm