Diversity of Type

Jack Prescott
(Internet Published) Apr 2001

Tipplers, Rollers and a few breeds of flying Tumblers stem from a common ancestry. Tipplers are cultivated Tumblers selectively bred for marathon time flying and the acrobatic syndrome has been excluded from modern Tipplers.

In Britain there are only three types of so called high flying contest breeds

• Tipplers
• Birmingham Rollers
• Competition Tumblers

The West of England Tumblers and the Cumulets have vanished from the Contest flying scene due mostly to the very popular attraction towards the show pigeon craze.

The overwhelming interest in non-racing pigeons in Britain is in the showing of many varieties, very few of which have been flown for many generations in spite of the fact that they are exhibited as flying breeds.

It is sometimes very difficult to tell the difference between Tipplers, Birmingham Rollers and Competition Tumblers when being inspected in the loft. There are a lot of Tipplers that look like Rollers and Tumblers. There are a lot of Rollers and Tumblers that look like Tipplers. The solution would appear to be to throw them out for a fly and watch for the acrobatics or the absence of this. The only reasonably sure thing is that if the specimens do any kind of acrobatics, they cannot be Tipplers of any valid strain. If however, they don't do acrobatics it does not prove that they are Tipplers. This is because some Rollers and Tumblers fail to develop the acrobatic syndrome. They are what the Forefathers in England, who cultivated such pigeons, used to call Non Tumbling Tumblers.

There is diversity in type both in appearance and in performing. There are Birmingham Rollers galore that never come close to the Birmingham Roll standard of perfection and could be confused with competition Tumblers. Competition Tumblers are only used in contests in the West Midlands of England and even there, only about a dozen fanciers are operating effectively. There are only a very few competition Tumblers in the USA, and non of these are flown in contests.

The Competition Tumblers are free styled in their acrobatics. I have never had a specimen of competition Tumbler than rolled to satisfy the Birmingham Roll standard of perfection. Nevertheless, I kept Birmingham Rollers for 17 years and produced very few that met the standard either. Certainly, some of them gave the optical illusion of perfect spinning when flying at 500 feet high and 500 feet range plus. Quite a few of them when qualifying for the correct Roll status ended up dead because they rolled down and hit something hard.

Tipplers are not necessarily high flyers and the contests with them, do not include merit points for high flying. Many a good kit of Tipplers has been disqualified for excessively high flying because the referee was unable to see it for more than the allowed 1 hour.

All of the Rollers and Tumblers that I ever had would fly very high to pin head size or less but only when the weather was conducive. Otherwise they operated at about 500 feet high. This is quite high enough because contests with Rollers and Tumblers about acrobatics in some kind of unison. Excessively high flying is therefore an unwanted aspect. However like it or not, we sometimes get it occasionally with disastrous results due to losses or disqualification's.

[Internet Published Apr 2001 at http://www.tipplers.com/jack/]