“At the Lyndhurst Homing Pigeon Club, it is said that all members are friends until race day. That’s when bragging rights and the potential for thousands of dollars in prize money unleash a fierce competitive streak. And on a recent Saturday night, the first race of a new season was hours away.
Joe Esteves, the club’s president, toted a crate holding 25 pigeons into the clubhouse on the outskirts of the working-class township of Lyndhurst, N.J., 11 miles west of Manhattan. Each of the birds had been raised from birth for the obscure yet centuries-old pastime of pigeon racing. And while the first race of the pigeons’ lives would be a 100-mile sprint, the margin of victory could be a matter of seconds.
Mr. Esteves, a 42-year-old father of four, was late. The room had already filled with the easy chatter of longtime club members and an undercurrent of unspoken, competitive grudges. Mike Tyson, who traces his career as a champion heavyweight boxer to a childhood incident involving a pigeon killed by a bully in Brooklyn, keeps pigeons behind a bar in Jersey City, N.J., making him the state’s most prominent fan of the bird. Most other racers are far less famous but no less passionate.
In the Northeast, the racing season for pigeons born this year — a.k.a. young birds — begins in August and runs through late October. Birds more than 1 year old race in the spring and fly farther, sometimes 500 miles or more. The sport is more prominent in warm-weather states like Florida and Texas. But the Central Jersey Combine, which coordinates the local competitions, has clung to its standing as one of the country’s largest pigeon-racing organizations.
In recent years, dwindling open spaces and fast-fading traditions have winnowed the field of participants, threatening a pursuit that can trace its roots to ancient Egypt.”
This work was assigned and published by New York Times in October 2024.
