Friday, January 23, 2009

Pigeon Castle


Pigeon racing is one of the passionately followed hobbies in Taiwan, and all across the island are monumental pigeon coops expressing its enthusiastic following and reflecting its lucrative rewards. Pigeon racing in Taiwan is widely considered the most competitive in the world.

Was out on my scooter yesterday and thought "where does this road go?" It lead me to this gigantic pigeon coop in Tanzi north of Taichung.

The pigeons are trained to fly in circles around the coop, as you can see from this picture and the first one. In the evenings on rooftops you can often see men standing and clapping next to these structures. They are working the pigeons.

A closer look. The pigeons inside must be worth thousands of US dollars, and the coop is adjacent to a house and guarded by local Taiwan dogs, a breed known for their territoriality.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do the Taiwan breed of dogs have a name? Sounds interesting, never heard of it before.

corey said...

The Formosan Mountain Dog, which is also just called the Taiwan Dog (臺灣犬).

John Naruwan said...

I wonder what's going to happen if or when bird flu shows up in Taiwan's pigeon lofts. There's no way pigeon fanciers are going to get let their prized possessions get culled.

Manuel said...

i have taiwan pigeon with ring number klpr 2011 636902 ,with personalize ring with chinese name and number 0937 764799 ,if you know the owner, please contact me at my email megaworldcenter@yahoo.com ,thank you