NAMING CEREMONY today ... My two beautiful Egyptian Swift Pigeons
Meet Cleopatra (Cleo), and Nile, a matched pair.
I won them at a pigeon show recently and I'm thrilled to have them.
. . Egyptian Swifts have been bred in Egypt for 4,000 years but only introduced to the rest of the world in 1925. They are still rare outside of Egypt.
. . They are sleek and small, 10", 3/4 pound but have a 30" wingspan.
. . They are similar to Homers in performance, up to 60mph, but only have homing abilities of about 50 miles vs Homers many hundreds, and they fly quite high, 600 feet for 2 to 4 hours then return home.
. . Cooper Hawks and Falcons are their biggest threat but they have learned to make abrupt maneuvers and can usually survive an attack (I hope).
. . They are very gentle and calm birds, very beautiful, I'm in love. Just today I finished their quarters in the outdoor aviary. I won't release them to fly for a few months, to make sure they know where home is.
Most interesting blog. Thanks for sharing. I don't know much about pigeons but did have a first today at my bird feeder. Six Eurasian Collared Doves...:)
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