Lost in transition

A racing pigeon which got lost in far-flung Greece will be making a surprise return to its Qormi owner tonight after hunters there, moved by the bird's story, paid for its flight from Athens.

The one-year-old pigeon ended up on the Greek island of Syros, to the southwest of Athens, after being released from Metaponto, a town in southern Italy, last month.

But the pigeon, owned by a Qormi dilettante, never made it back to Malta. Instead, some three weeks ago, Nikos Monoyou came across the weak and injured pigeon in a Syros street.

"It looked as if it had been attacked by another bird," an official of the Maltese embassy in Athens told The Times.

Seeing Malta printed on the pigeon's ring, Mr Monoyou contacted the embassy in Athens, which in turn got in touch with the Malta Racing Pigeon Federation. Mr Monoyou's nephew, a vet, nursed it back to better health, giving it the necessary vitamins for it to regain its strength.

In the meantime, however, the pigeon's story made the headlines in Syros and caught the eye of the island's hunters' association, which offered to pay for its €250 flight back to Malta. A carpenter also chipped in, building the box in which the pigeon was brought back here on an Air Malta flight yesterday afternoon.

Malta Racing Pigeon Federation president Charles Farrugia, who picked up the bird from the airport yesterday afternoon, said around 20 per cent of racing pigeons do not make it back to Malta, with the weather playing an important part in their return.

"We do sometimes get calls from other countries saying that they have found one of our pigeons but it is too expensive to bring them back," he said, adding that Maltese pigeons have been found as far afield as England and Russia.

When racing pigeons venture so far, they do not have the strength to fly back.

The pigeon's owner is still unaware that one of his lost birds has been returned. Mr Farrugia said he will give the pigeon back to him tonight during a dinner organised by the federation.