If you have been in the pigeon world for a while than you probably have experienced a predator bird or two attack your pigeons. If you have not considered yourself lucky. However, with the number of predator bird attacks on the rise, the chances are slim to none you will not experience an attack.
For that reason, I wanted to share the number 1 method to stop predator bird attacks on your racing pigeons.
CODICE LIVIA
That method is called Codice Livia. It was developed by an Italian veterinarian and fancier named Adriano Verardi. Not only does his background alone give him credibility his method has been proven to work as he has used it to bring the number of attack on his own birds from two killings per week to zero. That is not a misprint I stated 0.
With that success rate, a little background is warranted. Adriano Veradi’s loft was located dead smack or extremely close to woodlands and hills. For those who are not aware those locations are prime breeding grounds for peregrines and every other predator species. For this reason, Adriano’s birds were under attack weekly. This danger was more profound for his young and inexperienced birds.
So What Did he do? Here is where the genius of CODICE LIVIA takes place. Adriano’s decided the best way to protect his pigeons was to make them look like the very predators that attacked them. The CODICE LIVIA method allows the fancier to paint a small yellow patch on the tail of the bird with a black line through the middle. Here is a visual:
As you can see the yellow/black/yellow pattern is on the tail and the feet
Now if you are wondering what could be used to create this pattern some nail polish will allow you to perform this very look.
Can you see the simple genius? The yellow/black/yellow pattern provides the camouflage. And the predators will hesitate to attack because they will think it is another predator species.
Also, if they do decide to attack this pattern patch will retract the attack and the predator will deviate to safety.
Finally the absolute best part of this system is the fact that there is no harm! There is no harm to the pigeon or to the predatory birds.