Snapped by SG on a lovely clear day last week on a variation of this Barcelona city walk. The birds belong to three tired-looking gents who one would have said were hippophiles pertaining to the kingdom of Dionysus, so we didn’t enquire as to the whys and wherefores.

Birds are often painted for ceremonial or magical purposes. For example,

• 1,500 painted pigeons were released when Perón met Dutra to swap diamonds and chitchat in 1947.
• Red and yellow pigeons helped Victory obliterate Valencia in the final of the 2002 Maldives National Tournament.
• John Huston and Shelley Winters starred in a Ovidio Assonitis flick, which has John Huston as an extra-terrestrial pretending to be a Polish tourist who can’t pronounce his own name and who grows bald men in a box, and which ends with a battle between hawks and doves pigeons painted white. Franco Nero is Jesus Christ, both here and elsewhere.

Why hasn’t Zapatero banned it?

Tags: gipsy, Modern Spanish Thief Pouter, pigeon, walking, walking tours
Categories: Birds, Les bourgeois

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1. Frank
   February 27th 2010 06:36

   These birds are actually Modern Spanish Thief Pouters. In fact, if you look closely you can see some of the males are flying with inflated crops. They aren’t colored for magical purposes or otherwise. They are colored because of the game being played. The birds are in the colors of their individual owners so that they can be recognized at a distance. Birds are put up and chase a hen bird which has a white feather attached to her. The male birds are judged on their “wooing” abilities.

   This breed is very popular here in the States within some of the Cuban and Spanish communities and also popular in some parts of Mexico and S. American countries.

2. Trevor
   February 28th 2010 09:03

   I thought that this was going to be a very sophisticated wind-up, but it’s true! Thank you!