For many of you, the pigeon eye is the best part to examine. Who does not want to look at all the different colours with thick texture, stripes and spots, etc? There are fanciers who call themselves judges of eyes, whereby the eye is rated at the top of their list. They think they are only able to select on this single characteristic. There are also those who have no interest whatsoever in the eyes or (do not want) to study them. Finally there is another another  group who would like to look at the eye but have no idea what to look for.

When it comes to differences among top pigeons,  then the variation of the eyes is the largest group. This indicates at the same time that there is no clear standard for  a top quality eye for breeder and/or racer. There is variation in the iris (3) and the exploration circle or oriëntation circle (2) (possible  orientation lies behind the latter. That is not proven up to now) among all top pigeons. We can use the pigeon eye as a mirror of the organism. You can read  the health status of the pigeon very well. If a bird is sick, you can  see it by the colour of their eyes. Usually then the colour is pale. The outer black ring (4) (Vermeyerencircle) around the iris is less visible or even disappears.

A large pupil will never appear at top pigeons. The pupil (1) should be preferably as small as possible. The iris of top pigeons is full of colour and grainy. It is like thick artist paint as if the iris sticks  out the pupil. When the descendants of these top pigeons are in a very good in racing we can conclude that it is important for the breeding culture to have a very thick grainy iris structure.

Of course this is not always the standard. The father of a top pigeon can have an ordinary iris. But when looking at his mother, it is very likely that she will have the qualities of a beautiful thick iris. She passed the super performances on to her youngsters. We may conclude that top pigeons usually have a thick iris, a small pupil and a slightly wider exploration circle around the pupil. The super breeders have a thicker iris and more color and more often black spots and dashes in the iris. The exploration circle is a little bit wider at super racers and usually anthracite instead of yellow or grey.

1. Pupil
2. Exploration circle
3. Iris
4. Outer black ring

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