Lost Pigeons

Especially in the spring and early summer, when young pigeons are first learning how to find their way home from greater and greater distances, you may find a pigeon that has become disoriented. Even older birds who've raced previously can become exhausted when flying home from longer distances or from a new direction. This happens for many reasons. Sometimes atmospheric or celestial weather draws the birds off course. Sometimes hawks and other birds of prey chase and harass pigeons in flight. Sometimes they are slow to return and must take shelter overnight, as most pigeons do not fly at night. If a banded pigeon takes shelter in your yard or on your property and is otherwise healthy and uninjured, it is likely in need of rest and, after recovering its strength, will continue its journey. If you'd like to be helpful, provide the bird with clean water and seeds (pigeons do not eat worms or bugs, only seeds). It will continue home to its loft when it is ready.

Injured birds or truly exhausted birds may need more assistance. If you are able, please capture and contain the bird. Take a picture or write down the number on the bird's leg band. Use that information to find the bird's owner and notify him or her that you've caught their bird. Find the owner's contact information using the resources below.

Birds with our "LM" Club Bands

The LMHPC orders a set of leg bands from the ARPU each year that its members can purchase. If you find a bird bred by a club member, it will have a band that show "AU" for the national organization, then the year of the bird's birth, then "LM" which is the code for our club. After that will be the bird's unique identifying number. If you find a "LM" banded bird, please contact our race secretary Khalid Yahya at Kyahya78@gmail.com 517-862-4824 and he will identify and locate the owner for you.

Club Code

Life bands show the code for the national organization (this band shows AU for the American Racing Pigeon Union), the year the pigeon was bred (in this example, 2025), and the club code for the club that the breeder of the bird belongs to. This bird has a "CBS" club code, which indicates that it was bred by a breeder at the Continental Breeding Station in Oklahoma.

Bird Number

Following the national organization code, the year of birth, and the club code, will be a number that is unique to that bird. Here, this is bird number 386.

Birds with Other Bands

The club has only a limited number of bands and not all of its members use club bands for their birds, but because our birds fly in ARPU events, they usually have "AU" leg bands. All such bands are tracked by the ARPU and can be used to locate the breeder of the bird. Also, any bird that has been raced in at least one ARPU sanctioned race (regardless of the band-issuing organization) will be listed with the current owner's contact information. Follow this link for instructions from the ARPU that will help you identify the bird's breeder. Follow this link to look up a bird by its racing record, which will show who currently owns the bird.

Local Facebook Search Page

A public Facebook group was established in our area that assists the finders of lost pigeons reconnect with its home loft. Click here to access that page to get direct assistance locating a bird's owner.

Coopers Hawks

One of the primary predators of pigeons in our area. Even if a Coopers hawk doesn't actually catch a pigeon, hawks like the one pictured above can chase pigeons many miles off course.

Photo by Calibas, Wikimedia Comm 

Bird Rescued After Hawk Attack and Returned to its Owner!

This pigeon (AU-2025-CDR-5917 owned by member David Kunath) was attacked by a hawk during it's second race in 2025. A farmer saw the attack and chased the hawk away when it brought the pigeon to ground. His family mended the pigeon's broken wing and cared for it. When it was recovered, they found the breeder (Garfield Brothers Loft), by looking up the club code  on the ARPU website and calling the club's race secretary, who contacted the breeder, who contacted Dave, who picked up the bird from its rescuers and returned it to his loft. Although the bird will not race again, it can fly short distances and bonded with a hen for the 2026 breeding season. If you look closely, you can still see the scar around the bird's left eye from its encounter with the hawk.