And more information here:

[bigbird]

Many times a person who is not familiar with the racing pigeon sport finds a pigeon and wonders what to do with it. If you can catch the bird chances are it is run down and has been on the road trying to find home for several days. These birds are truly domesticated and many of them have a hard time finding food in the wild.
The first thing you should do is offer the bird a drink. Pigeons siphon water and need the water to be about an inch deep to drink comfortably. If the bird is run down it wouldn't hurt to put a bit of salt and sugar in the water. About one teaspoon of salt to a liter will act as an electrolyte helping the bird to recover quickly. Adding several tablespoons of honey or sugar will give the bird some instant calories.
Pigeons eat whole grains. They will eat popcorn, rice, peas, etc., some of which may be readily available in any home or at the corner store. These will keep the bird alive and well till the owner can be found.
For a day or two the bird can be kept in a large cardboard box, put a layer of newspapers in it to help absorb moisture and make sure there are plenty of air hole in it. If you have a larger cage to keep it in this would be preferable.
In order to trace the birds owner we need to know the birds permanent band number. This permanent band is either a seamless metal or plastic band. It can be anyone of a variety of colours. These bands will all have numbers and letters on them. These will allow us to trace it's owner through a central registry that each national organization runs.
The first thing to determine is if it is a Canadian or American bird. All Canadian bands will have the letters CU or CRPU on them. American racing pigeons will have either AU or IF somewhere on them. Each band will also have on it the year in which the bird was banded for example: this years young birds will all be marked l997 or 97 last years were marked 1996 or 96.
Most North American bands also have club letters on them. My clubs letters are Tills & Dist. This stands for the Tillsonburg and District Racing Pigeon Club. Not all bands have club letters on them.
The last set of numbers are the birds registry numbers. They can be up to 6 numbers long, some may start with one or two 0's. It is important that all the numbers and letters are reported.
Some of our fanciers import racing pigeons from Europe and these will have different letters on them NL for the Netherlands and B for Belgium. You may also see some British and German bands. These birds can only be traced if the owners have registered the imports with the various national organizations