Got a spare million $$$$? Buy this pigeon!

We’ve all day-dreamed about it: what we’d do if we won the lottery… or if we had a very distant relative suddenly pass on their entire million-dollar fortune to you…

(Keep dreaming!)

For me, I’d buy A PIGEON!!!!!!

(I’m kidding. I would probably use the money to retire asap, live on the beach somewhere, and eat sweet potatoes all day!)

But back to the million-dollar pigeon I would hypothetically buy…

Meet New Kim, a racing pigeon from Belgium that in 2020, set a new world record when she sold for over a million dollars at an auction.

Image credit: Science Times. This is New Kim, a racing pigeon that sold for over a million dollars.

But actually, if I did have a million dollars lying around, I wouldn’t be able to afford this pigeon anyway - the then two-year-old female pigeon was initially put up for auction for just €200, but after a two-week bidding war she fetched a staggering €1.6 million. That’s about $2.28 million SGD as of 2022.

Why and how did New Kim sell for so much?

I mean, she looks pretty unremarkable!

Image credit: The Europe Sun. Is this a picture of a regular pigeon, or of New Kim? We will never know… (I’m kidding, this is a picture of New Kim. Give me some credit: I do my research before choosing what content and images to feature on my blog!)

The why:

She’s a winner, of course!!

New Kim may be a new name to you and me, but in the bird world, she is a well-known superstar that won a number of racing competitions in 2018. Gives a new meaning to the title of the tape, Kim Kardashian Superstar! New Kim has has already retired from the world of racing, but that doesn’t mean she’s not covetable - both as a pet, but also as breeding stock for future racing superstars.

Pigeon racing is the sport of releasing specially trained homing pigeons, which then return to their homes over a carefully measured distance.

Image credit: Wall Street Journal

The time it takes the animal to cover the specified distance is measured and the bird's rate of travel is calculated and compared with all of the other pigeons in the race to determine which animal returned at the highest speed.

And then, a winner is crowned!

The bird breeders from Belgium have long stood out as the best in the market, in part because of their generations-long experience in breeding the species.

The how:

Do as the Westerners do, and blame the rich Chinese for this… :P

As I mentioned earlier, New Kim was snapped up at a super low price of €1.6 million during an auction. During a frantic last half-hour of biding, two Chinese bidders operating under the pseudonyms of Super Duper and Hitman drove up the price by €280,000. Super Duper submitted the winning bid and is now the proud owner of this happy pigeon. But the price he paid DWARFED all previous records set by racing pigeons.

Image credit: Racing Pigeon Sport. Pigeon racing requires a specific breed of pigeon bred for the sport, the Racing Homer. Competing pigeons are specially trained and conditioned for races that vary in distance from approximately 100 km (62 mi) to 1,000 km(620 mi). Despite these lengths, races can be won and lost by seconds, so many different timing and measuring devices have been developed. The traditional timing method involves rubber rings being placed into a specially designed clock, whereas a newer development uses tags to record arrival time.

In fact, the final total that New Kim fetched was a whopping €350,000 more than the previous world record set by another racing pigeon named Armando, who was also born and bred in Belgium! Phew.

New Kim’s breeder and owner Kurt Van de Wouwer said he and his family were "in shock" at the news. (But a GOOD shock, I’m sure. Like the type of good shock you feel when Taylor Swift sends you chai cookies! Or if your pigeons sells for over a million dollars.)

Racing pigeons can carry on having chicks until they are about 10 and it is expected that New Kim's new owners will use her for breeding.

However, New Kim is a female - and just like in the world of humans, females are usually worth less than males. This is because male birds can produce more offspring than females, who actually have to spend the time and energy to lay eggs. On the other hand, the only work required from a male bird is his top-tier sperm.

I’m excited to see if the next generation of pigeon racing speedsters come from New Kim’s million-dollar lineage!

Image credit: ARY News. Remember this face, and the name New Kim! New Kim is the racer pigeon that has driven people to go bonkers after her!