South African Distance Rollers

I will give what info I can on the South African Long Distance Rollers, but please I am by no means an expert, as I am mainly interested in them for their highflying ability. The actual name is only in use now for about two years and was proposed by the South African Fancy Pigeon Association in a bid to get these birds in shows and increase popularity of this breed. The men that keep them call them local rollers or locals  as apposed to imports  or Birmingham's, also fondly revered to as yo-yo's- because they are up and downs the whole time.    If I understand correctly the South African long distance rollers were developed out of West of England, parlour rollers, tipplers, Orientals, and not sure what else (Only my guess).

The birds vary a lot in appearance, from Birmingham look-alikes  to birds with muffs and birds with drop wings. Personally I like a combo of drop wings and muffs. These birds are flown by a handful of guys in the eastern suburbs of Johannesburg. I would say they are the South African version of the American NAHFR. Although they have been around for very long, I think the guys are constantly crossing them with other breeds or different families trying to get the elusive perfect bird, and that is why they are not uniform.

These birds are flown six birds in a 20-minute competition. Each birds is colour marked and rolls are timed by an individual judge, after the 20 minute flight the six judges each check for the longest roll per bird and gives a score of one point per second roll. Roll-downs are disqualified and a bird gets 5 minutes to return to the kit after any roll or bonus points are lost. This score goes to the flyers annual score, which is taken over ten flights once a month over a ten-month period. The ideal bird would put in a 4-8 second roll. Remember this is not all spinning rolls, as expected with Birmingham's, but also twizzels and rolls on one wing. Every now and then you hear of a 12 or 20 second roll.

These photos were taken by my friend Steve. The pigeons belong to Leonard Maxton. After taking the photos Leonard let his birds fly. A total of 56 deep rolling, highflying pigeons, it must have been a beautiful sight. These birds often sky out when slightly overfed and easily fly for 1-3 hour and even longer if food is not managed properly.

There has been a bit of movement by some younger breeders to improve the quality of the roll, but they still compete against the old timers and the competition rules don't really favour them. The rolls are timed to prevent any bad feelings or animosity, because what looks like 50 ft to me very high up can possibly only be 40 ft to the judge.