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60 – Purebred PIGEON
Hello, my name is Frank D’Alessandro.
I am 28 years old and I have been raising pi-
geons since I was 9 years old. I am a fourth
generation pigeon breeder and have been
around pigeons my whole life. I breed, show,
and fly pigeons. My great grandfather and
great-great uncle both raised pigeons, both
who were major Homer flyers in Queens.
My grandfather raised pigeons as well. He
raised everything from Tipplers, Flights,
Saddle Homers and Racing Homers. My fa-
ther raises pigeons and still does to this day.
He is best known for his Dutch High flyers,
Flying Cumulets, and Serbian Highflyers. He
has pigeons photographed in the
Pigeons
Across North America
book. He has written
the NPA standard for the Russian Highflyers
and Flying Cumulets. He has raised Russian
Highflyers, Polish Mooshins, Szegediner
Highflyers, Budapest Highflyers, Stralsund
Highflyer, and Flying Tipplers. He is a cur-
rent member of NPA and ATU. He has also
worked with the Rare Breeds Pigeon Club
and the Nassau Suffolk Pigeon Fancier Club
(NSPFC).
Now we come to myself. I have raised
and been around all different types of
breeds. Over the years, I have raised Dra-
goons, Swallows, German Beauty Homers,
Bernhardins, and Flying Rollers. Right now,
I am working with three very different types
of breeds. My main focus at the moment
is Flying Rollers. I received my first pair
of Rollers back in 2000 that my father had
bought for me at the National Young Bird
Show in Louisville, Kentucky. They were a
pair of reduced. I absolutely loved the color
and had not seen a color like that before.
Therefore, I started with the one pair and
just worked from there. I started showing
the reduced Rollers at shows such as the
Nassau-Suffolk show, Rhinebeck, Faircount,
Big Apple, Sturbridge, Reading/Lancaster
and the National.
Showing pigeons has taught me a va-
riety of things that I can do with this breed.
After being let down in my early years, it
pushed me to get better. Many top pigeon
breeders have helped me along the way and
taught me so many things. Some of these
top breeders include Bob Perkins, Mike
Conway, Chris Reyes, Eric Kooker, and most
of all former NPA President George Tyndall.
Now 19 years later I continue to work
with my reduced Rollers (
top two photos on
the left)
and continue to do well with them
in the shows, placing many times and
winning Faircount, Sturbridge, Big Apple
and the 2016 National in Springfield, Mas-
sachusetts. I continue to work with about
15 pairs of reduced and try to improve
every year. After working with the reduced,
I started working with other colors such as
almonds, blacks, indigos and splashes. I am
working with about 15 pairs of almonds, 8
pairs of blacks, 4 pair of indigos and 6 pairs
of splashes.
The only problem with showing Flying
Rollers is that still to this day there is no
standard. I can see why some people are
against the standard because they are afraid
of “ruining the bird” and it is supposed to
be “Judged in the air” and understand that,
but c’mon people! The Racing Homer has
a show standard, the Flying Tippler has
a show standard, so why not the Flying
Frank D’Alessandro at the Big Apple
NoStandard
for
FlyingRollers
By Frank D’Alessandro
Frank D’Alessandro’s Rollers