|
"The
Budapestian Highflier" By
K.D. Spurling (Rare
Pigeon Digest Vol.I#3 - May/June'98)
The
Budapestian HIghflier (Budapesti Magasroptu Keringo) or "Poltli"
as it is sometimes called, is throughout the world regarded as one of the
best races of high endurance flying birds. With 2000 registered fanciers
in the city of Budapest alone, the breed is easily the most popular breed
in
its native Hungary. When it comes to highflying and endurance
flying breeds, only the Old English Flying Tippler is more popular
throughout the world. Contrary
to the common thought, the true Budapestian HIghflier
or "Poltli", is actually a rather young breed of pigeon.
Many are the fanciers in English speaking countries who would have us
believe that this breed is several centuries old, but this is simply not
true. As there are several other races of somewhat similiar flying breeds
native to the Budapest area, such as the Budapest Muffed Highflier (Budapesti
Tollabslu Keringo), the Budapest Kiebitz (Budapesti Bibic), the
Budapest Whiteflighted Highflier (Csapos), the
Budapest WhiteShield (Budapesti Tukros), the Budapest WhiteBarred
Highflier and of course the
Budapest ShortFaced Tumbler (these are simply breeds that bear the
name of the city of Budapest and they are not just simple color variations
of one breed); also included in the Budapest family are the Hungarian
Grizzle Highfliers, the Old Austrian Highflier, the Csepel Snow White
Highflier and also the Pest Blue Highflier (Pesti Kek), possibly, English
writers such as Levi have confused many of these breeds, resulting in
great misinformation. This
breed was actually first created around the period of 1907 by the Poltl
brothers of Budapest, hence this breed
is also reffered to as "Poltli", after its original developers.
The brothers crossed together the Vienna MF Tumblers, Szegedin tumblers
and also the Danzig Highflier of that time. The result of this cross were
birds that could fly in large and close kits with a fast wing action and
remain aloft for several hours. The
Budapest Highflier is medium sized pigeon of good proportions and is
slenderly built. The medium erect body
tapers gradually to the tail. The head is free of any ornaments with a
well arched topskull and the forehead steepens towards the beak. The beak
is of a blue grey color, downfaced and of a medium length. The
eyes are gravel grey in color and showing well defined blood vessels
within the iris to a spectacular effect.
The neck is of a medium length and is carried vertically with a well
carved and rounding throat. The breast
is carried proudly, slightly prominent and showing a good width and
musculature. The wings are strong and carried atop a well packed tail of
12 retrices. The legs are of medium length with blue grey toenails and
coming either clean or with grouse. The
first standard for the breed was put up in Hungary in 1943, but despite
the breed's immense popularity, it is seldom seen in the showroom since
its primary function is that of strictly a flying pigeon. There
are five colors or marked sub-varieties accepted in the modern Hungarian
standard, which are as follows: Storked
(Goylas): These birds have a white ground color with the tails and flights
laced in a grey-black. Birds with self white tails are also accepted. GrizzleNecked
(Koszorusnyaku): The head is a blue-grey or splashed with grizzled
feathers, The neck and breast is heavily colored with blue-grey feathers
showing a metallic sheen. The so called "ring" often contains
some white feathers. The flights are grey, the tail white, but birds with
grey laced tails are also accepted. GrizzleNecked
Whites (Koszorusnyaku feher): Like the above, but the flights and tail are
always white. Snow
Whites (Ho feher): The birds is self white and any colored feathers are
regarded as a fault. The eyes are
gravel opposed to being bull. Barred
(Pantos): The ground color is white with the flights and tail feathers
being a light grey. The wing shows two narrow grey bars. The head is
blue-grey and the neck shows grey feathers in the plumage which are
called "pearls". This marking is very rare in the breed. This
writer has seen only one; Hellmann (pers. com.) writes that he has seen
this variety only in a single photograph. Also,
even though they are not reported in any previous literature, Ash Red and
Ash Yellow Grizzlenecks do exist. Let me just say that we were more than
irritated after breeding one in 1996 and people calling us liars
or insisting that the bird was an accidental crossbreed. However, the
birds do exist in Hungary, even if
not well known. This writer went to a great effort to uncover the truth
and in a letter from Thomas Hellmann of Germany came the required
information. He too, had been more than irritated after seeing some Red,
and also Yellow Grizzlenecks brought to a show in the back of a truck by
Hungarian breeders to sell in Germany. If one goes to the effort, they can
always uncover the truth and many new and important facts can be aquired.
This situation is no different. The Red and Yellow series are said to be
produced from the matings of Grizzlenecks to Barred Budapests. While our
first Red Grizzleneck was actually produced by a pairing of a Stork to a
Grizzlenecked, there does seem to be some truth in it as this Red
Grizzleneck's first youngster
was a Barred Budapest, where as previously we had never seen a Barred
Budapest, let alone bred one. These Red series birds are regarded as being
very wild and erratic. Fanciers who have tried to fly entire kits of Red
series Budapests have lost them due to their inate nervousness. These Red
series birds are typically used as "markers" in Hungary, in that
a certain bird may be flown with several Red or Yellows to guage its
individual abilities since they can be readily told apart in this manner. e-mail:
russiastation@netscape.net https://members.tripod.com/ultrarare/
|