Ramon Vela walks up to the green, wooden coop and opens the door.
A moment passes before a gray and white pigeon flutters from the pen.
Ramon Vela's flock of pigeons take flight from their holding pen north of Edinburg.
“There goes one,” Vela says. Seconds later, he chuckles as more than a dozen others pump their wings and soar across the sky behind his home on the northern outskirts of Edinburg.
Retired from Hidalgo County’s purchasing department as of last year, the 63-year-old Vela now occupies his time heading the Friends of the Edinburg Library and with other local civic groups.
But for Vela, pigeon racing is a passion he discovered in his childhood but never forgot. He picked it back up in recent years.
“You have to have liked it since you were young to enjoy it,” Vela said.
Sitting still momentarily, a flock of homing pigeons perch in their coop. Homing pigeons are used not only for racing but also as pets.
Homing pigeons have been used since the time of ancient Egypt when pharaohs trained the birds to rapidly pass messages between cities. The birds played an important part in transmitting information throughout the centuries until the telegraph and telephone took hold in the 19th Century.
Today, the birds are mainly trained for a competition to see which can find its home first — traveling up to 600 miles in a single day.
Despite their important, if not humble, place in history, tracking the birds for today’s competition uses modern technology.
Today, bands are placed on a bird’s foot at birth with a unique ID number. A transponder records the birds’ average flight speed and time once they arrive at their home base, based on GPS coordinates from where the birds were released.
Nearly 10,000 members in more than 600 clubs nationwide form the American Racing Pigeon Union, the national group that standardizes rules and organizes national competitions for pigeon racers.
Homing pigeons take flight in circular motions for about 20 to 30 minutes before they return back to their original home.
Some celebrities, known for their other talents, are notable pigeon racers — Walt Disney, Terry Bradshaw and Jimmy Smits. And the sport is likely to gain more exposure in March when Mike Tyson will star in a new Animal Planet docudrama, showing the boxing champ’s lighter side as he trains and races pigeons.
Like Vela, the former heavyweight champ’s love of pigeons came as a kid.
“The first thing I ever loved in my life was a pigeon,” Tyson said in a statement. “Pigeons are a part of my life. It’s a constant with my sanity in a weird way; this is just what I do. If I’m lucky enough to die an old man, I’m going to have birds.”
Vinnie Torre has been Tyson’s latest trainer — not for the ring but for the pigeon coop. He says pigeon racing requires dedication and the resources to invest time and money in feeding and training the birds.
Torre, 64, a champion pigeon racer who grew up flying birds on the streets of Hoboken, N.J., said he still gets the same rush when he sees one of his “thoroughbreds of the sky” make the home stretch.
“My leg starts jumping and my body functions start flowing,” he said. “It’s so exciting. It’s really intense.”
Like any sport, that competitive drive and excitement seems to keep the racers in the game.
And the most successful birds have sold for as much as $225,000, said Deone Roberts, sports development manager for the American Pigeon Racing Union.
“When the bird does that well, he’s sort of put out to stud so he can have the life of leisure,” she said. “And with his offspring, you’re hoping for the same genetic activity through breeding.”
Most pigeon racers, like Vela, don’t come close to investing the type of money the top enthusiasts spend.
Vela formed the Pigeon Racers of South Texas in October 2009. The group has more than a dozen local enthusiasts who get together to race their birds.
Vela regularly feeds the more than 80 birds he raises medicine, vitamins and clean water to promote their health. To train a homing pigeon, he said, he releases the young birds, one by one, away from their home and lets them find their way back. The distance doubles after each successful training session. Eventually, some birds manage to fly hundreds of miles in less than a day.
“The homing pigeon is not like a feral pigeon in town,” Vela said. “You get them in shape just like a track runner.”
The birds don’t always make it back, either. Manmade and natural predators, like power lines or hawks, can cut a pigeon’s trip short. Throughout last year, Vela said he raced 50 pigeons, and he lost about half of them.
Losing a bird seems to be part of the sport. And the opportunity to raise a better bird keeps racers like Vela coming back.
“We don’t fly for money; it’s just a sport,” he said.
To find out more about the Pigeon Racers of South Texas, contact Ramon Vela at (956) 607-9048 or ramonvvela@hotmail.com
Source: The Monitor
