Bellefontaine drew people near and far for an international Central Fantail show this past weekend.
Logan County Fairgrounds hosted the Central Fantail Club Annual meeting Friday and Saturday, drawing 204 fantail pigeons competing for the spot of best fantail.
“It’s just neat to bring something like this here,” said Tylor Murray, fair board director and and poultry chairman. “Now they’re world famous.”
He said members came from all over the country, Canada, Ukraine and Scotland.
“Showing pigeons is what we enjoy,” he said.
The breed shown is the fantail breed.
Bob Vincent, Central Fantail Club president, said the show in Logan County had a smaller number of entries than their shows usually have, but the club hasn’t had an opportunity to be in Ohio since 1981.
“We thought it was about time to represent these members,” he said.
Shows have been all throughout the country, from San Diego, Oklahoma City and Salt Lake City to Myrtle Beach, Pittsburgh and Canada.
But the draw surprisingly isn’t the showing of fantails, but the camaraderie that comes with it.
“It’s about the friendships a lot of these people have,” Vincent said. “I’ve known some of them for 40 to 50 years. The show brings everybody from all over and that’s really what it’s about.”
Vincent said many of the people showing their fantails have been raising them since they were children.
“Half of the people here didn’t even bring birds,” he said. “This is just a chance to hangout.”
Gary McGowan of Scotland said to him this show is the biggest in the world “maybe not in numbers, but we grew up with this — being in the big show.”
“When I heard about it, I jumped on a plane and came here,” he said. “It means a lot.”
McGowan said he’s been showing fantails for forty years.
“I grew up around pigeons,” he said. “I was introduced to this when I was 10-years-old. It just blew my mind honestly.”
Rodger Robertson of Akron agreed about the camaraderie.
“The relationships you build with all these guys is great,” he said.
Rodgers said he’s been in the fantail showing business since the 1960s.
“There’s just a history here,” he said. “It’s fun to be able to do this kind of stuff. We are just trying to come up and produce a bird close to what the standard is. You try to build and put the pieces together to build that bird you feel good about. It doesn’t have to win, but if you feel good about it, you win.”
Murray said it is a very hands-on competition.
“We want a well spread out and displayed tail,” he explained. “That’s done by twisting the feathers properly and lacing them.”
The fantails are judged on station, carriage and motion — how they move around the showing pen.
“It’s about how they present themselves — with a high set tail and a defined wing ling and defined body,” Murray said. “It’s also about how they pose. We look at those characteristics and pick out the best representation of what a fantail should look like … they should be able to move freely (with) short, jaunty steps while maintaining their position.”
Vincent said he hopes to attract a younger generation to fantail showing.
“If you look around you can see that most of us are in our 60s,” he said. “We were once all 20-year-olds together. Very few young people are coming into the hobby. I hope to attract them to keep the spirit alive. All we do is try to breed to the standard and we never reach it. It’s a lifetime pursuit and we’re still doing it.”