At 57 years of age, I have been very fortunate in my life to be successfully involved in various competitive sports – HUMAN AND ANIMAL. Only in the pigeon sport have I ever heard of evaluating athletes by “EYE SIGN”. I have never witnessed nor heard of coaches, owners, general mangers or parents looking into the eyes of their players, young children or livestock with a “jeweler’s loupe” to see if they were going to be a good performer, top breeder, sprinter, long distance athlete, etc.
I have owned, raced and bred horses. I have gone to several top sales and auctions, and I have never heard or witnessed an eye sign theory to select racing or breeding stock in horses.
The same applies in dog racing, fighting chickens, dog fighting or other types of animal competition that is legal or illegal. Nobody has any theories or evaluation procedures with eye sign. WHY? Because they would be laughed out of the sport for such a theory. It is ridiculous for those sports or competitions, and it is just as silly to believe they can be used in the pigeon sport to help with success.
I read advertisements about eye sign specialists, racing eyes, sprinting eyes, distance eyes, eye sign pairing and mating, graders, teachers and scientific research about eye sign. Only in the pigeon sport do some fanciers believe and practice these methods. Of course, there are other methods we also use in the pigeon sport for evaluation and culling that many have faith in, such as wing formation, strong or weak back, soft or hard muscle, throat configuration, color of toe nails, short or long keel, and maybe 20 more physical characteristics that are used as methods of selecting breeding or flying stock.
In all of these theories never do I hear mention the one major requirement necessary for the racing pigeon to be successful: The ability to find his way home, “HOMING ABILITY”. The intelligence and navigation skills to be 100-600 miles from home and race and navigate to return home to his loft the same day. Without this ability to home and navigate, all the other qualities mean nothing. Yet the graders, teachers, master breeders, specialists, etc. never seem to be concerned about this one aspect of our sport.
Can they grade intelligence, heart, determination, motivation or desire just by handling a bird, opening his wing, looking at the throat or looking into the eyes? PLEASE GIVE ME A BREAK! YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS AND REALLY BELIEVE THIS IS POSSIBLE! To spend your money and time applying these methods to achieve success is foolish.
Like I said before, only in the pigeon sport do these experts exist (self proclaimed experts). WHY? Because we in the sport look for any short cut to success. There is none. The only way to be successful in this sport is the old fashioned way, to work for it, and earn it.
The sad thing about these so called experts graders and eye sign experts is that I truly believe they think they have the ability to select birds by their methods.
Only in the pigeon sport can they find individuals gullible and naive enough to listen and sometimes practice their methods. No other sport or competition would consider such theories with a straight face.
We talk about our sport being on the decline, and there are many reasons for it. What a shame if a new flyer gets involved with one of our eye sign experts, and spends his time and money on their methods. After a few years, if he stays that long, with little or no positive results, we lose another potential fancier and maybe a few of his friends.
Yes, I am being hard on these individuals because I TRULY BELIEVE THEY ARE HURTING OUR SPORT for some small financial gain or a personal ego trip, or both.
As I have said in many other articles, you have the best graders in the world, the training basket and race day. By training and racing your birds you will be evaluating yourself as well as evaluating and culling your birds.
You as a trainer may need some improvement in different aspects of the sport: feeding, training, medication, trapping and loft management. It is hard for us to accept the blame for poor results or heavy loses. We much rather blame the birds, the weather, the transport company, or some other area, but not our own abilities or methods.
To select breeders and flyers is a very simple procedure. PERFORMANCE should be your only criteria. Does the bird come from a winning family, generation after generation of excellent race results? If the answer is yes, then the bird is worth taking a chance on in the breeding or flying loft.
Performance means the type of results necessary to compete in your area: speeds, distances, weather and land conditions. If the bird’s family has shown that it can be competitive, that is all you need to know. Forget about his eyes, wings, back, muscles, throat or keel.
Occasionally I will go to a auction, especially if it is sponsored by an excellent flyer and offers birds with race records. I see these domestic birds, some with multiple diplomas, sell for much less then birds with foreign bands and no race results. The excuses are that he is to long, has no chest, has a weak back, has no breeding eye, etc. FORGET THOSE THEORIES! The bird has already proven itself in race competition with multiple diplomas. He has the ability, and he has already proven it. You would have no problem taking a chance on breeding this bird with another performance bird with the same ability.
“SAME ABILITY” means proper breeding: speed to speed and distance to distance. If the bird has multiple diplomas at various speeds and distances that is even better. You really should not care about eye sign, or how the bird handles.
The sport is changing everyday. New ideas and theories are advertised, sold and practiced. However, the basic principle still applies: no homing ability and navigating skills, no positive results. You cannot find these abilities by looking into the eyes. Regular training and racing and selecting breeding and flying stock for performance results and bloodlines is the only path to success.
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Article Written by: Bob Prisco
I grew up in Madurai, South India, which used to be a small town back then. Racing pigeons used to be a hobby for a lot of villagers and textile mill workers who used to meet at the pigeon market every sunday. None of these folks had any links to pigeon knowledge except what they found on their own in breeding and raising pigeons. Most of those folk believed in eye sign! The common feeling was that the pupil should be quick to expand or contract with sunlight and it should become very constricted almost to a pin-head size in direct sun. The reasoning was that the racing pigeon that has this feature had excellent eyesight in hot or rainy weather and would find its way home fast. Another belief was that the skin around the eyes should be in two layers and full based on pedigree. A third belief was that the success was better with pigeons with violet, green, dark red or orange than yellow eyes in that order. This belief was based on their own inherited knowledge over several generations. If its a myth so be it. At least it was a subject that got them talking excitedly!
dear, the mentioned eye sign are pretty much better and available with junglee bird – stray pegeon, u mean this bird can win the race! Eye sign is like how the eyes are there, clean, brightness and any swelling, u have to see this only, not with colour and rings grinds ok, best part very good blood line and healty of the bird and attitude of the bird, this bird should be well attached with you it is more important, quite and cool birds can win the race
You guys do not believe in eye sign theories because you don’t know what to look for.
i have never meet anyone who is an eye sign guy with a top race record in their area and yes i do know about eye sign and have studied it tried it and never found it to be better than just selecting race proven birds
the day the eyesign men beat me to the winning table thats the day when i will get myself an eyeglass MR BASKET IS THE ONLY WAY great article by the way
I have been saying these EXACT same things for many years. This is an excellent article Bob. Hats off to you!
I totally agree with Bob….the basket is the proof ! Well said Bob. Mac McSweeney
thank you. this makes sense and confirms a lot of things for me
A very good article which is asking us to think differently on racing pigeons & concentrate more on breeding, feeding and traning techniques rather than eye sign.
With my very little experience in the sports in Sindh, Pakistan i tossed my well trained and healthy pigeons with good eye signs from just 150 kilometers and none returned. My conclusion was eye doesn’t matter untill you have good families of pigeons bred over generations for their homing ability, intelligence and determination. If you dont have good tested breeds along with effective use of proven methods of racing, your pigeons dont win or return home.
I think you right no body look to the dog race or horses or human eye for just a simple reason which is The dog, horses and human they race on tracks, they do not have to have the homing ability and they race on tracks for a very few k/m, the pigeons they liberated from few HUNDERD OR A THOUSAND K/M they have to have a tool to guide them to their home and this tool it will be not the wing formation, strong or weak back, soft or hard muscle, throat configuration, color of toe nails, short or long keel, and maybe 20 more physical characteristics as you said the only tools we notice is the eye, try to learn it and I think it will be good aids to your loft.
I agree till the last word
My thoughts exactly after 62 years with pigeons have never tried it and don’t plan to start now. Great articalBob!!!