Single word name for bird training.

June 14, 2007 10:36 AM

I need single word name for bird training. It needs to be either more generic than falconry or if it exists, more specifically, it's related to the art of training homing pigeons (often mistaken as carrier pigeons).
posted by Davidissimo to Science & Nature (11 answers total)

Homing, at least acording to the Royal Pigeon Racing Association, formerly known as the National Homing Union.
posted by Pollomacho at 10:58 AM on June 14, 2007

Fancying?
posted by brautigan at 11:20 AM on June 14, 2007

It ought to be pigeonry.
posted by niloticus at 12:44 PM on June 14, 2007

Response by poster: Pigeonry sounds pretty good. I mean it follows right?
posted by Davidissimo at 1:54 PM on June 14, 2007

If you trust the U.S. Navy, it's pigeoneering.
posted by ormondsacker at 3:32 PM on June 14, 2007

Similar but not quite identical to brautigan, I'd heard it called "the Fancy" by the kind of lad who has a loft on his allotment (Northern England). See for example this (horrible) web page: "The National Pigeon Association is the governing body of the Fancy..."
posted by Abiezer at 6:57 PM on June 14, 2007

peresterophily: The art of training pigeons.
posted by robcorr at 7:14 PM on June 14, 2007

Also, pigeonry means "a place for pigeons", not the art of training them.

Pigeoneer seems to be quite commonly used to describe pigeon breeders, owners and racers, so I guess pigeoneering would be used to describe doing the things that a pigeoneer does.
posted by robcorr at 7:18 PM on June 14, 2007

What brautigan said - Fancying - is the british term of endearment for owning pigeons, usually to race them. A pigeon fancier, owns pigeons, usually at a loft in their garden, and races them at various events up and down the country.

Wiki suggests that Pigeoning is an acceptable term, although not one that I'm personally familiar with.
posted by triv at 5:30 AM on June 15, 2007

Sorry, just to add, the races are for homing Pigeons - birds from multiple owners are taken, via lorry, en masse to a destination and released for them to fly to their respective homes.
posted by triv at 5:33 AM on June 15, 2007

Sorry, just to add, the races are for homing Pigeons - birds from multiple owners are taken, via lorry, en masse to a destination and released for them to fly to their respective homes.

In one type of racing, yes.
posted by Pollomacho at 8:55 AM on June 15, 2007