Racing Pigeons Take To Oklahoma Skies

Chris Howell, NewsOn6.com

TULSA -- Released early Friday morning from Sherman, Texas, hundreds of homing pigeons raced back to their home roosts in Oklahoma. 

The Texas Center Pigeon Racing Club registered the birds in Tulsa, then trucked them to the Texas release area.

"The good ones come home first, the others will be a few minutes behind those," said bird racer Randy Goodpasture.  "The further out you go the more it requires a pigeon with vitality and stamina to keep coming without stopping."

Bar-code readers at the roosts will read ankle bands on the pigeon for official times.

These 'throughbreds' can fly up to 800 miles a day but do not fly at night.

"The young birds we start out at a hundred miles, then 150, 200 and 300 miles," explained Roland Gutierrez, Co-Chairman if The Texas Center Convention.  "The old birds we fly out to six hundred miles.  Sometimes you get the birds home that day at 600, sometimes it takes two days."

To get the race results, or get more info on pigeon racing, check out Texas Center Pigeon Racing's web site here.