LOFTY SPORT

Most people pay to rid their properties of pigeons. Bill Jeffers spends time and money to have them fly home as fast as they can.

"If you're thinking we're racing 'roof rats' then you're wrong, because those are different types of birds," he said. "This is a whole different class that I am sure not a whole a lot of people know about yet."

The pigeons the 70-year-old Glendale man cares for at his home are part of a dying tradition, one that began in Belgium during the late 19th century when, he said, modern pigeon racing originated. But pigeons and people go back way beyond that.

The racing pigeon was the special prerogative of kings, princes and nobles. In fact, historians said, it was against the law for a common man to own pigeons. Among the many uses for pigeons was that they kept emperors in touch with the most remote areas of their lands during a time when horse and riders or caravans would have taken weeks to deliver the same information.

Today, Jeffers is training a flock for a race in Yucca, Ariz., on Valentine's Day. The race will cover about 150 miles, though he said some pigeon races are 600 miles long.

VIDEO: Click here to watch a video as Jeffers and his pigeons prepare for race day.

"I love doing this so much because it's great to see these birds find their way back home when you release them," he said.
Racing the birds involves attaching a bracelet with a microchip around a bird's leg and placing a computerized clock in the loft at home.

"When they get inside the loft, the chip hits the computerized clock and that records the time they get there," Jeffers said.
Jeffers was first introduced to pigeon racing in Pennsylvania when he was 12, a time when its popularity was high.

"It's a dying sport here in the United States but still popular overseas in countries like China and Africa," he said.

Like others, Jeffers, too, got away from the races for awhile because he had nowhere to house birds, but his interest was rekindled in 1972 when he moved to Arizona.

He built a large loft to store his 200 pigeons, some of which race and others that breed. Many of the birds are sold to other pigeon racers.

Bird trainers participate in a number of races every year and prepare the birds by taking at least 50 to 60 pigeons out at least 50 to 80 miles away to fly home.

"Many people ask how they know to get home, but it's just an instinct that God gives them," Jeffers said.

Jeffers, who belongs to local clubs and several pigeon racing associations, recently took 60 of his birds and released them in Wickenburg and Morristown for training purposes. They returned within about an hour.

Joe Losordo, a Phoenix resident who is a friend of Jeffers and fellow pigeon racer, said pigeon races can be costly.

"It's a heck of sport but an expensive one at that," he said. "Depending upon the prize money and the level, entry fees could be at $1,000 a bird."

Jeffers said he would like for the younger generation to appreciate the races and to that end he will help the daughter of his chiropractor get started with two pigeons.

Jeffers recently commissioned a portrait of one his prize-winning pigeons by Sun City West resident Penelope Ott. The painting shows the Glendale man holding one of the birds in his hands up close.

"The bird had just won a big race, and it felt like I was holding a gold bar," he said.

Mitchell Vantrease can be reached at 876-2526 or mvantrease@yourwestvalley.com.