At the weekends you often see pigeons flying overhead in a flock; swooping and turning from side to side until eventually they settle on the ground.
What they are actually doing is taking part in a competition. In the flock is one female bird the rest are all males who of course will follow her wherever she goes. The most macho male bird who stays closest to the female in the air is eventually declared the winner.
The wings and bodies of the male birds are painted with dye to enable them to be identified in the air. When we first saw them, we thought the brightly coloured birds were parrots!
The problem is that you never know which way the birds are going to fly and where the female will eventually decide to land. So the bird's owners and the followers have to chase around in their cars to try and keep up with the flock.
Once the birds settle to the ground, the whole group will descend on the spot.
Yesterday, the female decided to come down in my neighbours garden in one of their bushes.
The female is somewhere in there being mobbed by all her suitors.
The owners congregate to see what is going to happen.
The competition finished at 7pm. Until then the pigeons had to be left to their own devices. After all they may have taken to the air again.
Once the competition was over, the steward removed the female bird from the bush and the male suitors followed.
The last bird coming out of the bush.
When all the pigeons were on the ground, one of the other stewards passed them over the gate to the owners and peace was restored.
The man whose bird had won was delighted - his prize was 1,000€ .
PS The bird adorned in the colours of the Spanish flag (bandera) seems to be the least interested of the lot. Perhaps he's a maricón!
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