The Donek is a Turkish
breed of
fancy pigeon
Fancy pigeon refers to any breed of domestic pigeon, which is a domesticated form of the wild rock dove (''Columba livia''). They are bred by pigeon fanciers for various traits relating to size, shape, color, and behavior, and often exhibited at ...
developed over many years of
selective breeding
Selective breeding (also called artificial selection) is the process by which humans use animal breeding and plant breeding to selectively develop particular phenotypic traits (characteristics) by choosing which typically animal or plant ma ...
. The name Donek is of
Turkish language
Turkish ( , ), also referred to as Turkish of Turkey (''Türkiye Türkçesi''), is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, with around 80 to 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. Significant sma ...
origin and means, "turning and dropping down from the sky." The Donek, along with other varieties of
domesticated pigeons, are all descendants from the
rock pigeon
The rock dove, rock pigeon, or common pigeon ( also ; ''Columba livia'') is a member of the bird family Columbidae (doves and pigeons). In common usage, it is often simply referred to as the "pigeon".
The domestic pigeon (''Columba livia dome ...
(''Columba livia'').
The breed is known for its aerial acrobatics (spiral diving) and as such is more of a performance breed rather than a purely fancy variety. Their aerial spiraling return when called back to the loft makes a spectacular sight.
[Seymour, Rev. Colin (Ed)(2006) ''Australian Fancy Pigeons National Book of Standards''.]
See also
*
List of pigeon breeds
This is an alphabetical list of pigeon breeds. Pigeons and doves are members of the bird family Columbidae. Doves tend to be smaller and pigeons larger, although this distinction is not consistently applied.
The birds listed here are breeds of t ...
References
Pigeon breeds
Pigeonbreeds originating in North Macedonia
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