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Hi, Mark and Dora

Thanks a million for your website. I have always been fascinated by the Flying Oriental roller, having seen a photo of one for the first time in the early eighties. I was in grade 8 back then. In typical Oriental Roller stance, with head alert and thrust slightly forward, wings hanging below a gracefully angled back and tail, stood a splendid Almond cock, ready to take off from the page, and ever since laying my eyes on that pigeon, I have always wondered about them. the book in which I saw this bird also imparted a little information about them, but it seemed to me at the time, that the bird I was looking at was by no means a performer, but a rather athletic looking show specimen, according to the article. I was a little disappointed at the time, for I understood that there did once exist a performing class of this breed, that did indeed grace the skies and entertain their owners with spectacular aerial feats, but that these birds no longer exist in that form. they then became a secondary musing, at the back of my mind, for I was then concentrating on those other feathered acrobats that so captures the hearts of those who have come to know them - the veritable and magnificent Birmingham rollers.

The ghost of the Oriental, I was soon to discover, still lurked and eddied in the superb performers I saw in the many lofts around my neighborhood. Some of the Birmingham cocks seemed a little larger than their cohorts, and many a bird would perch, alert and ready, with wings casually clasped below the tail. Sometimes the same bird's head would have a distinct "robustness" about it, the beak and care slightly larger and heavier than the normal dainty little curve seen on the rest, and that Flying Oriental Roller that I saw on the page of the book would be staring intently back at me from a perch. It all came back to me when I read that the Birmingham roller was actually the result of a cross between an Oriental and a Dutch tumbler!

The photos of your birds are excellent. The recessive red and black spread are spectacular, and so are the Almonds. I see the unmistakable shape of a roller pigeon in their carriage, and one or two birds could easily be mistaken for Birmingham rollers, since no size comparison can be used to distinguish between the two. I understand that the Flying Oriental Roller is slightly larger than the Birmingham roller.( I hope you do not take this as an insult - I certainly did not mean it in that way - to me both breeds are beautiful in form and colour ) I was delighted to find that these birds are performers, and good ones at that.

There is one thing that I have noticed about performing roller breeders - they can enjoy the thrill of seeing the birds in the air, rigorous athletes capable of incredible acrobatics, and at the same time they can enjoy the thrill of seeing all the colour varieties that the pigeon is capable of displaying. The birds on your website are beautiful, and worthy of the show pen, and as I looked at them I smiled at the thought of what it must be like to see them etched against an azure sky, comfortably floating about on multi-coloured wings. I do not breed performing rollers anymore, due to the terrible act of rolling in itself. A "well-bred" roller sooner or later makes a "mistake" and more often than not, meets its doom. Some recover, with smashed wings and / or broken legs, blindness and other horrible injuries, and that, to me, is not why I kept them. I thought, what if I was a high diver at the Olympics, going through an aerial performance, and then suddenly unable to stop myself from turning. Instead of falling into a deep, bubbling pool of water, my head smacks against concrete..... I was wondering - does the same thing happen to Oriental rollers? Are they able to extricate themselves from the roll, or do they also crash sometimes? I have to confess that I yearn to see rollers in action.

The last kit of birds that did it for me flew way back in 1997. It was a small kit (in Birmingham roller terms ) of only seventeen birds. Seven of those rolled nicely, one turned out to be very deep and killed itself instantly one afternoon when it rose quite high, started a slow turn, and never stopped. A lovely red grizzled hen turned out to be the star performer for a while. She had awesome control and a tight, fast spin. She crashed after more than two months in the air, during which time she never so much as hinted at hitting the ground. Her sister, although less frequent, rolled slightly deeper but just as fast - never struck anything in all her time as a kit bird. Two cocks were ultimately the top birds. One was a black badge and the other a surprisingly large dun. Both were deep and true - a perfect hole could be seen through the spinning form of the dun whenever he could be viewed from the side. Both birds never rolled when they were too low. In fact, out of seven rollers, I only had the two casualties, but that was still unacceptable. The deep roller gave all the warning signs that he would eventually come crashing down, but not the grizzle hen.

What are your views about pigeons rolling down and injuring or killing themselves? Would you recommend the Flying Oriental Roller as a bird better able to control its roll? I would like to raise rollers again, and perhaps changing the breed could produce the results I want. I know the importance of genetics as far as performance of any kind goes, and surely with the roller there are more complexities than simple formulas. One cannot, for instance, pair a deep, or even medium distance roller to another with the same propensity. the results would be disastrous, so very careful selection would have to be practiced.

Sorry about this long-winded mail, but when it comes to pigeons, I am especially garrulous, and want to rant and rave about the subject, and this seems reflected in writing. Thanks for taking the time to read through it, and I am looking forward to your answers. Once again, thanks for the photos and articles about the Orientals

Best Regards

Alistair