Adana Kuslari Guvercin

[Duane Terry]

Hello Everyone,

Boy things have changed since the early 1980's. Today you can take a virtual trip to Adana or any other city in Turkiye just by using Google, else facebook or youtube. To see the pigeons of Adana type in Adana Kuslari Guvercin or Adana Kus, else Adana Guvercin under "Images". There they are just like we saw in the 1980's. This sure brings back old memories. I am glad to hear that some here are interested in the pigeons of Adana. I suppose the selection of birds are few and far between. I regret not importing the birds back then as I had very good stock from an old friend Feyzi Surjuk at Incirlik. The cupboard method did not work well for us here in Eastern Kentucky. Had to use wire flooring and the birds must be attended daily. Also once they got used to the area many refused to fly...very stubborn birds. My stock back then was from the Ulrich Reber imports and Aleppo, Syria. Nothing like we saw in Adana. Maybe years from now the birds will gain more popularity in the USA. I hope this finds everyone doing well. Signed, Duane Terry

[Kurt Gürsu]

Good to hear from you Duane,
It's been a long time.
Am I imagining it or does it say you are keeping birds again in your profile?
If so, let me know, when you are ready for Taklas:)

I can't remember clearly but, I think, I had let you know (a while ago) finally there were some Adanas imported to US a few years back.
Mehmet has them.
He lives pretty close you.
He may not want to part with the birds but when the time comes let me know.
I'll talk to him.

I think, Steve also had some from the same bloodline.

They are from Uwe's birds out of Germany.

I tried to bring a pair also from a Turkish guy in Germany 6-7 years ago , a green eyed white hen and a blue eyed white male but when the price got to $2,500 for a pair of birds I had to back off.
Way out of my league.

[Duane Terry]

Kurt, I hope I am using this forum correctly, don't know much about making posts. Anyway I am back into the birds. Only for now some parlors and few rollers. Then several doves.
I had to make a move back in early 2000 and there was no place here for the birds at all. I also just got the internet back out here. I raised chickens for several years but the feed bill got so high that I had to rid them.

I spoke with Mehmet maybe last year. I am glad to hear that some the Adana's are here in the USA. I have been going through a lot the Turkish websites on these birds over there and these birds are more popular now than ever before. They have them in Mardin and Van, Turkiye. You know usually you would only find them in the Adana area and to the west, not eastward like in Urfa, Diyarbakir, Siverek, ect. Also the men are using the metal leg bands, plastic number bands also. I remember the former Dr. Hollander sending me a whole box of these bands to give to the men in the early 1980's. I could not get them to use them then. They preferred the plastic rings and barrel bands. Also some the men would not use the rings_they would say "it hurts their feet". But now I see they are much like us here with the bands.

Also I noted the beautiful strains of grouse legged adanas, some are booted. Then someone captured a photo of one these birds diving_much a better photographer than I was. As the men were flying the birds they would give me the signal when to have the camera ready_ but by the time they would tap me on the shoulder (I had the birds in view on a 200mm to 500mm lens) here these things were roaring in upon us. You don't have much time to capture the shot. The men are also calling these birds now "dove from the sky". Back then we called them Phantom Kus. They draw attention where ever they go "I see also television news reports when these birds come into town", like in Mardin. I suppose Kurt that this is why the price is so high because of their fame. Back then we would go to the kus pazar and buy them for 1000 lira each...I mean good looking birds. Then the best were going for 10,000 lira each_two to ten us dollars then. It is much the same here, cost of living, inflation, especially a sack of good pigeon feed $15 or above. This is what that has kept me from keeping too many birds.

Signed,

Duane

[rollerdoneks]

Hi Duane,

I have Adana's that I got from Mehmet Serce. To start with it was hard to get them too settle and raise babies. They are doing okay now. This year (2013) I have raised 14 babies. I have one Siyah Sakar and one Abraj that I had up flying and dropping to a fantail dropper. Due to this hot Summer here in Colorado the birds stopped flying. The same goes for my Donek's they quit flying or would only go up for 30 seconds or less. The birds are going through a heavy molt right now and I am sure they don't want to fly at this time. I am hoping that I can get them up once again this Fall. I also hope they are not to old to start.
Thanks Kurt for letting us know that the Adana's that Dick Taylor imported came from Uwe's birds out of Germany. FYI I have one Bull eyed Beyaz Erkek that came out the a pair of Abraj that I got from Mahmet. The Beyaz is mated to a green eyed Siyah Sakar and I raised only one baby out of that pair. The baby is a Mavili Sami Aynali.
Please forgive me if I am using the wrong Turkish names. I also know that the letter i has a different meaning without the dot over it.

Dennis Radi
Nunn, Colorado

[Duane Terry]

Hello Dennis,

Did you get any good dives from the birds? Did they fly high? Some these birds are very tough to get started in the air. I also know very well they are often hard to get started raising young. Just give them time and they will be ok. I know of the Sakar ones and I see they are raising pieds and whites from your post.

[rollerdoneks]

To answer the question on: Did you get any good dives from the birds? Last year 2012 I only did raise nine babies and only got one to fly.
I sold four, breeding out of four more of them and lost one. Before I lost the one bird flying I would fly her with two or three Donek's. She would fly above them and when I would show the dropper they would all come down fast. She would start out above them but would be the first to hit the ground. I think she could dive a lot faster. Here is how I lost her. I had opened the loft door and five Donek's and my only flying Adana came out. We were having a wind storm going on and all six got spooked and flew away. Three of the Donek's came back the next day and I lost the other three birds.

Am I having fun yet! I was until I lost her.

[Duane Terry]

Sorry for the loss Dennis. The adana birds you have are very good stock brother. Believe me, I know these birds. I know also what it means to loose some the best fliers. Did you ever hear any kind of noise coming from the adana as it was coming down? They usually make a lot of "swooshing" sound and you can hear the sound from way up there. The bird coming in before the doneks, interesting. It would be interesting to see the adana compete with a wuta? Those wutas are one super charged pigeon for diving.

Signed,

Duane Terry

[Kurt Gürsu]

Kurt, I hope I am using this forum correctly, don't know much about making posts.

You are just fine Duane. It is good to see you.
I get on internet once a week to be honest and some times every other week.
Not much time with the work, family and the zoo I got going here.
So, I might be a bit deleyed responding to some messages.

Anyway I am back into the birds. Only for now some parlors and few rollers. Then several doves.
I had to make a move back in early 2000 and there was no place here for the birds at all. I also just got the internet back out here. I raised chickens for several years but the feed bill got so high that I had to rid them.

Well, I am glad to hear you are back to birds.
All you have to do is give me the word when you need something.

I spoke with Mehmet maybe last year. I am glad to hear that some the Adana's are here in the USA. I have been going through a lot the Turkish websites on these birds over there and these birds are more popular now than ever before. They have them in Mardin and Van, Turkiye. You know usually you would only find them in the Adana area and to the west, not eastward like in Urfa, Diyarbakir, Siverek, ect. Also the men are using the metal leg bands, plastic number bands also. I remember the former Dr. Hollander sending me a whole box of these bands to give to the men in the early 1980's. I could not get them to use them then. They preferred the plastic rings and barrel bands. Also some the men would not use the rings_they would say "it hurts their feet". But now I see they are much like us here with the bands.

Last time I went back home I saw a few guys keeping Adanas in my home town Antalya also. They are spreading but it is more like the men from Adana are spreading. Every one of the people keeping the birds were from there.
As far as the dewlaps in the East, they are different birds. My mother is from the city of Gazi Antep, so I used to spend a lot of time there during summers. It is in the South Eastern region. Those birds are relly used for the pigeon wars and rather bulky birds. The photos don't reflect the size difference. They fly much longer time then Adanas but if they had to attempt a dive like an Adana, it would be the end of them.
As far as the bands, not much to say to be honest. Our way of pigeoneering is a different culture. The local clubs and the national federation sells the bands but they are mostly used by the homer guys and the show type people. Performance guys are a bit particular.

Also I noted the beautiful strains of grouse legged adanas, some are booted. Then someone captured a photo of one these birds diving_much a better photographer than I was. As the men were flying the birds they would give me the signal when to have the camera ready_ but by the time they would tap me on the shoulder (I had the birds in view on a 200mm to 500mm lens) here these things were roaring in upon us. You don't have much time to capture the shot. The men are also calling these birds now "dove from the sky". Back then we called them Phantom Kus. They draw attention where ever they go "I see also television news reports when these birds come into town", like in Mardin. I suppose Kurt that this is why the price is so high because of their fame. Back then we would go to the kus pazar and buy them for 1000 lira each...I mean good looking birds. Then the best were going for 10,000 lira each_two to ten us dollars then. It is much the same here, cost of living, inflation, especially a sack of good pigeon feed $15 or above. This is what that has kept me from keeping too many birds.

Signed,

Duane

I was after a specific bloodline. The owners are two brothers. One still lives in Adana and the younger brother is Germany. Since the bird flu, we can't bring birds out of Turkey so I had to try the Germany branch. They are champion birds yes but that is still a bucket load of cash. Considering it is going to cost another $2,500 with the transportation, customs etc.

Then again, they demand good money for good birds.
Just not my budget, especially if it is not a Takla.

[Kurt Gürsu]

Please forgive me if I am using the wrong Turkish names. I also know that the letter i has a different meaning without the dot over it.

You are doing surprisingly fine actually Dennis.
I pay particular attention to names, letters etc. to make sure I don’t give wrong information to people who pay attention to these kinds of things.
Seeing the words you use it makes me think the extra effort is worth it 

The issue I have is the ergonomic keyboard wife got me.
It has this weird angle and makes me skip the “o”s sometimes.
I push the damn button but after I post the message I read it and it is all goofy.

[Duane Terry]

You are right Kurt about the dewlaps in Southeastern Turkiye being different than the ones in Adana. The Adana ones were developed for their fast diving and the color is of little importance. This is not so in most the other dewlap kinds as they are bred for a specific color or color markings. Not many the adana ones will breed true to the color. For example the Sakar ones (these are blacks with various white color spread in the plumage). Kupeli Sakar (black with earrings), Gerdanlik (gerdanli sakar) black with necklace, Akrep (almost solid black with a couple white primary flights, then Arap (self black). Some also have the white skull cap (this no doubt is inherited from the Mawardi color, as these have the white skull cap). Given a pair of black adana (preferably dull black color) these will produce other colors in time. Usually the first color to appear is smokey blue. The smokies are often paired to the blacks, this gives a deeper black color sometimes. The blacks will also produce blue bar, blue check, pieds (abraq (s), and if the pieds are mated together you get whites (beyaz), white flighted birds, earring birds, sometimes necklace birds. We had a pair of the pieds to produce a perfect little earring hen in Diyarbakir. Then in these birds is present the faded color, not auto-sex kind. This color in these birds comes in beautiful pastel colors, most all are called Safi. Then the reds, mostly ash red bar and check. Finally the mawardi color_different birds here than in other locations. These seem to be less popular amongst the men, but I saw a few and these were paird to whites and even to other colors. Then also we were looking at some birds that appeared to be indigo colored. This may of been a type of the Safi (fadeds). It has been a long time Kurt since I have used these names for the birds, hope I got them right.

Signed, Duane

[Kurt Gürsu]

I think, you are find with the names Duane.
I am a bit rusty also to be honest.
Plus the Adana guys have their own specific language when it comes to birds.
Hard to keep up if you are not always around them.

[rollerdoneks]

The list below is what I came up with for English names vs. Turkish names. Please feel free to add, change, make comments, correct spelling.
I have included after the Turkish names the way I think it is said.
I spoke with a Adana gentleman, and he told me that Abraj is a Equal mixture of Black & White and you can also call it a Siyah Aynalı.
This referred to one of my birds. I don't know if it covers all Abraj as also being called Aynalı. I would think this is the same for Abraq/Abras?
I don't think Mehmet has any Safi. What color is Safi if not the color gene Faded? Is it maybe the Pale gene Factor?
I have so many questions and lets stop here for now.

Adana Dewlap Pigeon = Adana Gerdan Güvercin = Ah-dahn-ah Geh-reh-dahn Goo-veh-reh-jeen
Blue = Mavi Mah-vee
Black = Siyah See-yah-hh
Red = Kırmızı Kuh-reh-muh-zuh
White = Beyaz Beh-yahz
Faded = Safi Sah-fee
Self Black = Arap Ah-rahp
Black White Flight = Akrep (Nick-named Scorpion) Ah-k-rehp
Self Blue Bar = Reyhanlı Şami Reh-yhahn-luh Sh-ah-mee
Self Blue Check = Reyhanlı Zırhlı Zuh-reh-heh-luh
Blue White Flight Bar = Mavi Şami
Blue White Flight Check = Mavi Zırhlı
Red Self Bar = Kırmızı Merverdi Meh-reh-veh-reh-dee
Red Self Check = Kırmızı Zırhlı
Red White Flight Bar = ?
Red White Flight Check = ?
Snip or Blaze on frontal = Sakar Sah-kah-reh
Dewlap = Gerdan Geh-reh-dahn
Earrings = Küpeli Koo-pehl-ee
Throated = Gerdanlı Geh-reh-dahn-luh
Necklace = Gerdanler Geh-reh-dahn-leh-reh
Neckband = Gerdanlik Geh-reh-dahn-leek
White part = Başı Bah-shuh
Spotted = Caparli Jah-pah-reh-lee
Amulet = Muskalı Moos-kah-luh
Speckled/Mottled = Abraq/Abras Ah-breh-ahk / Ah-breh-ahs
Equal mixture Black & White = Abraj Ah-breh-ahz
Pied = Aynalı Ah-y-n-ah-luh
Lower part leg-Grouse feathers = P,acali Pah-jah-lee
Tar colored Check = Katrani Zırhlı Kah-treh-ah-n-ee
Broken/Open Check = Bozuk Zırhlı Bo-zook
Dark Black Check = Kara Zırhlı Kah-reh-ah
Cupboard = Dolab Doe-lahb
Cock bird = Erkek Kuş Eh-reh-k-ehk Koo-sh
Hen = Dişi Dee-shee

Capital letters A B C Ç D E F G Ğ H I İ J K L M N O Ö P R S Ş T U Ü V Y Z Lower case letters a b c ç d e f g ğ h ı i j k l m n o ö p r s ş t u ü v y z
Letter Say it like this …
A Uh B Beh C Jeh Ç Ch D Deh E Eh F Feh G Geh Ğ No sound at all! H Heh I Uh İ Eee J Juh K Keh L Leh M Meh N Neh O O – not like ow! Ö Urr P Peh R Reh S Seh Ş Shh T Teh u oo, like oops ü Oooh v Veh y Yeh z Zeh

[rollerdoneks]

Lower part leg-Grouse feathers = P,acali Pah-jah-lee
Here is a correction to the above post.

Lower part leg=grouse feathers - Paçalı = Pa- cha-luh

[Kurt Gürsu]

This is pretty good stuff Dennis.
Thank you

[Duane Terry]

Hello Dennis_your list of names is awesome. The safi ones_also you can spell this safagi are the faded color. Most all the adanas carry the faded gene. Whether there is enough stock of them in the USA for this to show up_time will tell. I would describe the adana ones as_"a blend of many dewlap kinds with hazel green eyes". Not many of them will breed true to the color and it is highly possible to get the faded color as it is in their ancestory. I don't think anyone in adana breeds for the auto-sex feature, but just out to the west you will find the men doing so in Gaziantep. That kind is different and much like the Reehani we know here. The safi ones are pastel colored in grey, black, blue, and red. Mostly the cocks are lighter colored if these be mated together. I had a pair from adana back then_the male nearly white and the hen charcoal grey. Beautiful birds and the male a very fast diver. A man from adana had them in his Hotel room when I got them from him_pure pets. I only wish I had a list like you made when I first went over there. Things would of been a lot easier with the language. Those men in adana have their own words for these birds and it is hard for some others to understand the names.