Sometimes there is a Facebook group for homing pigeon owners in a specific geographic region. We lost one of ours and someone found it, found the Facebook group, and posted a picture of the bird and the tags and the breeder recognized it and contacted us and we got our bird back.

It might also just need some rest and then it will take off and fly home again. Ours also hatch more pigeons so fast that even though we have lost a couple we still have more birds than we started with. Most homing pigeon owners expect some level of attrition over time.

Probably the most traumatic one was when a hawk killed one of ours within view of our house and kids … but to be honest it was actually pretty cool to see a hawk dive bomb a pigeon and knock it out of the sky so I’m not too sad. Circle of life and all that.