At present to my knowledge there is only three people involved specifically with highfliers in South Africa. A major problem being that there is no flying highfliers readily available in this country. We are busy selectively breeding from ex-show pigeons to see if we can recreate a flying bird. The breeds we are trying are the Vienna Highflier, the Memeler Highflier and the Dutch Highflier or Hollandse Hoogvlier. I have had some degree of success with the Vienna and Dutch Highfyers, but the Memelers seem to be a more long-term project.
The most reasonable and logical option seems to breed our own strain of highfliers and for these purposes I have decided to use mainly our local rollers or the South African long-distance rollers. The idea is to acquire exceptionally high flying and long flying pigeon from various breeders and use them to start our stock . I am sure if we breed only for flying ability and not for the roll we will have a very good quality pigeon in a couple of years time.
I have heard from various sources that there were flying tipplers and highfliers in the country about 20 years ago. Either these birds went into show lofts and have never flown since or they have been absorbed into our local roller breed, but if you are aware of anybody owning and flying highfliers or are interested in them please contact me.
