Found Beautiful Pigeon in our yard today

[jandkds]

Hello,
My husband was greeted by a beautiful pigeon when he came home from work today. He seems to be in fine health but ate some seed and drank a little water when offered. He hopped right into the dog kennel when it was set on the ground near him. He is now in our screen room on the back porch safe from any predators for the night.

He is banded but it has no numbers or familiar letters on it.
The band says
Suydam's HighFliers
Enemies on the roof
Friends on the street

Any idea where this bird came from or who he may belong to? We would love to reunite him with his owners safely. He does not want to leave here now.....

He is black with white tail feathers, white/gray head with little red spots and white eyes. Very glossy and not thin at all.
We are in Effingham, NH and have no idea where he may have come from...
Any help would be welcome!

[jandkds]

Effingham is almost on the Maine border in East Central New Hampshire. We do live near a "game preserve" where the wealthy go and hunt...I hope this bird was not bred to be hunted he is much to friendly and not scared of anything!

[TAWhatley]

Welcome and thank you so very much for helping this pigeon. It is highly unlikely that we can locate the owner of the bird, and it sounds possible that we might not want to. High Fliers are not bred as game birds .. they are performing pigeons, but that doesn't mean that the breeder didn't sell the bird to a game farm.

I'll see if I can find anything based on the band information, but I really think this bird will need to find a home as a pet. Please let us know if you are interested in giving the bird a home or if you would prefer that we try to find a home for it.

Terry

[jandkds]

Hi,
Thank you for responding to my message. He spent a quiet night fluffed up in the corner of the screen porch to keep warm. He seems very alert and not agitated a bit. He is pooping quite a bit and it looks normal so I don't think health is an issue for him/her? (He has some beautiful green shades on his neck, is that a male or female?)(irridescent).

If you cannot locate his owner I think my husband is very taken with him already and if not I have a friend who raises all sorts of animals and birds and she would give him a wonderful home immediatly.

If you can find the owner and they did not sell him to the game preserve I would like to see him go home. (but only if it is safe!)

We are just feeding him bird seed right now...will that be alright until we find out what is going to happen with him? Does he need to be able to roost somewhere or is just sleeping in the corner on the porch preferable to him/her?

thank you again.
He is a beautiful bird and looks very well taken care of!

[spirit wings]

He might belong here...sorry it looks like a nice farm to me. you may want to contact them, If it is their bird, you can ask what they would do with him and if you did not like what you hear perhaps ask if you can keep him. here is the link for contact.
http://suydamfarms.net/

[jandkds]

I have looked at the sight but see no mention of pigeons. I wrote them an email and will wait for the reply. It does look like a very nice place if indeed that is where he came from.

[spirit wings]

there is a phone number, who know how often they check email. the owners could have some pigeons as a hobbie on the side and they just were not mentioned. or they could know nothing about it...but with the same name that would be surprizing. please call and keep us updated.

[jandkds]

Hi, I will call as soon as I get home from work later today. Hopefully I will get a reply to the email before that.
Thanks you again for your help with this little guy!

[jandkds]

They are only there to answer the phone on Fri-Sun. The pigeon has decided to just eat here and get water then roost in the tree next to the driveway. I just hope an owl does not come by and have him for supper as we have quite a few around here. Hopefully he will come back down to the porch where the kennel is that he went to at first. He ate quite a bit and drank a lot as well so maybe he is getting ready to resume his journey.

[spirit wings]

I would lock him in the kennel if there is a next time he comes down. that way he stays safe and IF the farm is the owner they may want him and then he would beable to be given back to them or if he becomes your pidgeon he would be in one piece to live a long life.

[LokotaLoft]

sounds like a type of high flyer you got there so dont think it would be sold for hunting purposes ,my guess it that it just got lost ..but then one never knows

[jandkds]

I am hoping that he is back on the porch in the morning...he is a beautiful bird. I would not want anything to happen to him.
The people at the grain store where my husband went to buy seed today said that a lot of people have been coming in lately and asking what to do with the pigeons that are appearing at their homes.
Do they get disoriented with the bad weather? We had some really nasty storms last weekend...they said to leave him outside on the ground and he would fly home...I do not want him to get eaten by anything as this is a rough neighborhood for wild animals.

IF he comes down is it best to leave him free or best to keep him safe until we can possibley find his owner or build him a coop?
I am a Scottish Fold cat breeder so I cannot bring him in the house...the kitties would try anything to get him.

[jandkds]

Have you ever heard of Suydam's Highfliers? The bird is quite large....has a black body, white tail feathers, white head with multi-color spots, a green and purple irredescent neckline, white eyes, and very red feet! The band is yellow...with three lines of print on it.
Can't find anything on the internet but someone else here found Suydam's Farm in NJ...have you heard of that?

[LokotaLoft]

well the white eyes alone tell me this a high flyer and the blue and white grizzle tell me its whats is called a print coloring which alot of the high flyers have .. they fly so high that even high and heavy winds can blow them off course causing them to get lost .. in the wild they do not fair to well against preditors as they are not fast flyers and birds of prey over take them very easily ..once they are lost they rarely find their way back home so its always best to capture them to keep them safe and keep them or find them a new home if you cant find the original owners ,and I have never heard of Suydam's Highfliers so they must be personalized bands though personally I think a phone number on a band like this would be way more helpful .. if he does come back and if you wish to keep im I would suggest building him a place to live wher you can keep him in an enclosure with room to spread his wings would be best as theres all kinds of things that go bump in the night and day that want to eat them... where in NJ are you located by the way ??

[jandkds]

I am in New Hampshire....the farm with the name Sudyam's is in New Jersey.

Now that I have read your post I hope that he comes to no harm tonight and is safe on the porch in the morning. If he is hungry he should come back down to eat and drink.

Perhaps I will be able to take some pictures of him tomorrow if he comes down to stay.