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Thoroughbred fliers

No "rats with wings," these are high priced, highly prized, carefully bred sporting birds loved by thousands.

CARROLLWOOD - Some people see pigeons as little more than germ-carrying winged rats. But to a pigeon fancier, racing pigeons are "thoroughbreds of the sky" that can navigate their way home from hundreds of miles away, part of a tradition dating back thousands of years.

Steve Ferreria, a Hillsborough County sheriff's deputy, wasn't even a teenager when he got hooked on homing pigeons. That early infatuation has blossomed into a lifelong love affair and a place among Tampa Bay's subculture of pigeon fliers.

"I don't see myself changing," said Ferreria, 33, who lives in Wellswood and works in the sheriff's District 3 office in Carrollwood. "It's a culture, you're in it for life."

Ferreria has been in it since he was 11.

It all started with a library book on pigeons the young Ferreria was secretly reading in class until his teacher took it away and sentenced him to afterschool detention.

That was hardly punishment, however, because his teacher turned out to be a dedicated pigeon flier.

"He talked to me about them at length," Ferreria recalled. "He even gave me a pigeon that does back flips in the air."

And so it began, an enduring passion for birding that has captivated Ferreria body and soul for more than two decades.

"My wife calls them winged rats," Ferreria said. "But she likes that it's a hobby that keeps me at home."

And home is where it happens, for the pigeon and for the pigeon flier.

Ferreria's back yard looks much like any other pigeon fancier's, maybe a little simpler than some, a little more intricate than others. But amid an above-ground swimming pool for his sons Christjen and Cole, and matching doghouses for twin beagles Gidget and Quest, is the object of Ferreria's fascination: a pigeon loft filled with fluttering racers.

The enclosed loft is a recent addition to an adjacent wire pigeon cage. It's roughly 8 feet by 16 feet with white siding, and its windows are enclosed by bars. The interior is subdivided into cubicles where the pigeons can nest and canoodle to their hearts' content.

The loft also provides the birds better protection from the elements. And it's nicer for the neighbors.

"It's a constant battle, keeping it clean," Ferreria said. "I've always got the leaf blower out here."

Despite all the fuss, pigeons make good neighbors. The loudest sound coming from their loft is a hypnotic cooing, and that gentle commotion even stops around dusk.

Beauty, though, is in the eye of the beholder.

To some, pigeons are little more than nuisance birds. But that's far from the truth for homing pigeons, which bear only a passing resemblance to their urban cousins, forced to scrounge for their daily bread.

Racers have been bred for speed. Their feathers are silkier and their breasts more bulging than regular street pigeons. They're also smarter and hardier than the typical street pigeon. These are pampered animals that routinely get vaccinations, vitamins and tender, loving care.

"Our birds are thoroughbreds of the sky," said Erio Alvarez, who has been racing pigeons since he was 15. "It's more analogous to having a performing animal of any breed, bred to perform."

Pigeon racing dates back to the Greeks and Romans, although the most famous pigeon was probably G.I. Joe, a World War II pigeon celebrated for winging military messages back and forth over enemy lines.

"I've always been fascinated by the fact that these birds weigh about a pound and can be 500 miles away but will find their loft or back yard," Alvarez said.

Though there are many theories, no one knows for sure what enables a homing pigeon to navigate with such precision. Some scientists suggest it might be the Earth's magnetic field, the direction of the sun and the birds' senses of sight and smell.

Pigeon fliers like to boast about lying back in their lawn chairs and letting their chickens come home to roost, so to speak. But pigeon racing actually is a well-organized, competitive sport.

And on any given Friday night, the Alvarez home in Lutz is the epicenter of that sport in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. Members of the All Tampa Racing Pigeon Club congregate there with as many as 20 birds apiece, stoked for the race at hand.

Because the sport often is passed down from father to son, it's pretty much a male-dominated domain, complete with masculine hail-fellow camaraderie.

But there also is a serious side to the celebration. That's because the pigeons, while not quite family pets, are prized animals and often their pride and joy.

"They're like thoroughbred racehorses, bred for performance," said Alvarez, 63, a criminal justice specialist for Hillsborough County. "It's like winning the Kentucky Derby. We get very attached to certain birds."

The birds can cost anywhere from $5 to nearly $100,000. They're bred to race and trained from 5 days old to know where home is.

And home is where the heart is.

"Some are in a hurry to get home because they have a girlfriend waiting for them," Alvarez said.

A common practice among pigeon fliers is to keep a bird celibate until the night before the race. Fliers also train with food so the birds will want to come back home to eat.

The night of the race each bird is registered with a number on its leg band. The band, which is electronically scanned, allows judges to know the order in which the birds return home. Next they are placed inside a basket, which is actually an aluminum crate.

The term "basket" is a throwback to the old European homing pigeon days when baskets were used to transport the birds to their destination points. Today's pigeons travel inside a metal crate that holds about 25 birds. The crates, then, are transported in style aboard a $200,000 custom-made truck to destinations north.

Before a typical race night is over, some 2,000 pigeons will have been ferried hundreds of miles from home. Then the next morning, all at one time, they're let loose.

The race is on.

There are 100-mile races originating in Gainesville and 250-mile races from Jasper, near the Georgia border. There also is the 200-mile race from Pearson, Ga., and a 300-mile race from Dublin, Ga. The longest race for the Tampa club is a 500-mile flight from Chattanooga, Tenn.

There also are purses as high as $250,000, though most pigeon fliers say they're in it more for the love of the sport than the money.

With two racing seasons, as well as specific times to mate birds and raise their young, raising pigeons is a year-round activity.

The "old bird" racing series runs February through May.

The "young bird" series runs September through December.

Any bird older than 1 year is considered an old bird.

The young birds, because they are less experienced, are not taken more than 300 miles from home. But the older birds can be set loose as far away as 500 miles.

"They go about 50 miles an hour," Ferreria said. Depending on the release point, "it takes about six hours to get home."

And for the pigeon flier, those are the nerve-wracking hours. Not only does he watch the clock to see if his bird's a winner, he also watches the skies to see if his bird comes home at all.

"It's almost like a gauntlet," Alvarez said. "They have to survive the predators along the course."

That's why most fliers don't name their birds, despite starting the training process when the pigeon is less than a week old. They don't want to become too attached. It would be hard to take the family pet hundreds of miles from home and then simply let it go.

The predators are many, from man-made hazards such as power transmission lines to natural enemies such as hawks. Some of the greatest risks to pigeons, though, are in their own back yards.

"We have a terrible problem with hawk falcons," Alvarez said. "We can't go three days without an attack."

With roughly 200 pigeon fanciers in the Tampa Bay area, 13,000 nationwide, northwest Hillsborough has its fair share of pigeon aficionados.

Pasco and Hernando counties, though, are the area's hot spots for pigeon activity. Fliers are drawn there by the weather and the competition. In fact, Spring Hill is home to at least 50 owners of some of the nation's most competitive birds. It even has been dubbed "Little Belgium," in deference to that country's penchant for pigeons.

"It's a fascinating sport if you like understanding how things work and being involved with competitions," said Rick Parrino, treasurer of the Tampa racing pigeon club. "Because even though the birds are doing the work, you're still the manager of them."

- Jackie Ripley can be reached at ripley@sptimes.com or 813 269-5308.