Franco Bisceglia bought this pigeon, the one he is holding now with both hands in his Mississauga backyard, for several thousand dollars.
asserted
he → buy → dollars
One of its aunts sold for 52,000 euros this year.
asserted
One → sell → euros
The other sold for 48,000 euros.
asserted
other → sell → euros
And this pigeon, with a shimmering turquoise neck, is Bisceglia’s prized possession.
asserted
pigeon → prize → neck
“No one,” he says, the pigeon bobbing its head back and forth, “has this bird in Canada.”
asserted
pigeon → say → Canada
That is why, moments earlier, Bisceglia excused himself to shut the gate to his backyard, and why he keeps security cameras trained on his shed, and why he treats with suspicion phone calls asking about his champion birds.
asserted
he → excuse → birds
These racing pigeons, he says, are all valuable.
asserted
he → race → ?
He has been stolen from before.
asserted
He → steal → ?
He does not want to be stolen from again.
asserted
He → want → ?
But Bisceglia, who wears a shirt reading “Keep Calm and Race Pigeons,” is also deadly honest: Pigeon racing, he says, is a “dying sport.”
asserted
he → wear → Pigeons
His observation is similar to that made by others who race pigeons.
asserted
who → make → pigeons
Sue Wiltshire, executive secretary with the Canadian Racing Pigeons Union (CRPU), said the sport is “slowing down” but will never die, citing a recent rebound in membership over the past decade.
asserted
sport → say → decade
Bruce Bidon, president of the largest racing group in Canada, said the sport is “fighting a losing battle.”
asserted
sport → say → battle
A select few take it seriously all the same.
asserted
few → take → it
“You always want your bird to win,” Bisceglia said.
asserted
Bisceglia → want → ?
“That’s just how it goes.”
asserted
it → ’ → ?
They’re no park pigeons
Racing pigeons are no ordinary birds.
asserted
pigeons → ’re → ?
While the same species as the common pigeon found scrounging for crumbs on city sidewalks, the homing pigeons that Bisceglia and others race have been selectively bred for their incredible long-distance speed and navigation.
asserted
Bisceglia → find → speed
Most weekends between May and September, some 1,500 pigeons from across the GTA fly in the Up North Combine, the largest racing competition in Canada.
uncertain
pigeons → fly → Canada
They are trucked somewhere north of Toronto — Burk’s Falls (about 220 km away) at the closest, Klotz Lake (some 840 km away) at the furthest — then released together.
asserted
They → truck → furthest
Most of the time, they find their way home in a single day.
asserted
they → find → day
With no wind, they can fly up to 80 km in an hour.
asserted
they → fly → hour
How they do it, said Andrew Iwaniuk, who studies bird neuroscience as a professor at the University of Lethbridge, remains “one of the great mysteries in ornithology.
asserted
who → do → ornithology
The question has been studied intensely for some 70 years and has yielded intriguing results, but no fulsome answer.
asserted
question → study → results
Research shows homing pigeons use visual landmarks to recognize home and use the sun as a compass.
asserted
pigeons → show → compass
They also use their sense of smell.
asserted
They → use → smell
There’s even evidence to suggest pigeons can detect differences in Earth’s magnetic field.
asserted
pigeons → ’ → field
(If you place a strong magnet on a pigeon’s head, it has more difficulty navigating.)
asserted
it → place → difficulty
Every few years, a new paper will suggest how a pigeon detects such subtle differences; the latest suggests it comes from the liver.
uncertain
it → suggest → liver
But the ultimate answer of how pigeons navigate, Iwaniuk stresses, has yet to be determined.
asserted
Iwaniuk → navigate → ?
Pigeon racers might not understand how, but they do select for homing skills.
uncertain
they → understand → skills
They breed and cherish the birds who are better than all the others at finding their way back home.
asserted
who → breed → way
Bisceglia, a site supervisor for Toronto Water, caught the bug at age seven.
asserted
Bisceglia → catch → age
His parents initially resisted, but his mom — who grew up on a farm — eventually caved.
asserted
who → resist → farm
She told him he could start with two birds and see where it leads.
uncertain
it → tell → birds
(That and muscle cars; he has his eyes on a ‘68 Beaumont.)
asserted
he → have → Beaumont
Inside his small loft — one of three in his backyard, separated by males, females and the white pigeons he rents out for weddings and funerals — pigeons flap and coo, pecking at each other’s necks and flying back and forth.
asserted
pigeons → separate → necks
The air smells of pigeon poop.
asserted
air → smell → poop
All of Bisceglia’s birds are vaccinated and dewormed, he says, and they are so well trained that they don’t land on his neighbours’ houses.
asserted
they → vaccinate → houses
He lets them out when they are slightly hungry, so they’re driven to come back when he shakes the food bucket.
asserted
he → let → bucket
…and 64 more, not listed.
The Aporia
