There are many species of pigeons. There are the wood pigeon, the stock pigeon, the Turk’s pigeon, the collared pigeon, the Guinea pigeon, the Salvin pigeon and the turtle dove; there is the city pigeon, the street pigeon, the olive pigeon, the fruit pigeon, the diamond pigeon, the wonga pigeon and the ice pigeon. And there is the Drapa pigeon. This isn’t necessarily found in biology books and certainly not on Wikipedia. But that, says Andreas Drapa, doesn’t matter at all. Because the Drapa pigeon “everyone on this planet knows anyway”. Then yes.
It’s a Friday in November, I’m sitting in a white Mercedes-AMG, being driven relaxed through the small Baden town of Königsbach-Stein and looking up at the sky, which is exactly the same degree of autumn depression gray. I’m sitting in this AMG because a few weeks ago I decided to venture into the world of pigeon fanciers. I had read – I can’t remember where exactly – that pigeon breeding in China and Dubai is a million-dollar sport. That surprised me, at least I had previously associated pigeon breeding in Germany with my great-uncle, who kept maybe twenty pigeons in his loft in the garden. He only made money with his pigeons when he let them fly at rare weddings.