Science & Tech

Someone Bought a Pigeon for Almost $2 Million

by Michael Walsh
Mar 19 2019 • 8:25 AM
How much do you think a pigeon would cost? It’s a weird question, right? Pigeons aren’t exactly the Marilyn Monroe of the bird world. They all look alike, and there’s about a gazillion of them. Why pay money for one when you could theoretically take as many as you want from your local park? Well, apparently not all pigeons are dirty vagrants and they are not all equal, because somebody was willing to pay a nearly $2 million for the fastest pigeon ever.

We didn’t even know long-distance homing pigeon racing was a thing (what a world!), let alone that there’s a GOAT in the sport: a Belgian pigeon named Armando. This past weekend the multi-record holding bird was up for auction at the Pigeon Paradise auction site (seriously, what a world). The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports Armando sold for nearly three times the previous record high price for a competitive flyer ($600,236), going for 1,252,000 euros, which is $1.99 million. The winning bid, which was much higher than anyone expected, came from an anonymous Chinese buyer.


World’s fastest flyer or not, this obviously seems like an insane price, but apparently this sport we didn’t even know about five seconds ago is big in China, where prizes can reach seven digits.

Armando wasn’t the only member of his family sold. Seven of his offspring were also auctioned, for an average price of nearly $245,000. His new owner will make back some of his investment via breeding, just like how winning race horses are put out to stud for huge fees. So big weekend for Armando!

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And to think, we thought a pigeon only cost some stale bread and a willingness to risk disease. But in fairness we didn’t know the pigeons had their own GOAT. You always gotta pay for a GOAT.

Featured Image: nikolaasgyselbrecht