Race day: liberation, the homing window and late birds

Güvercin Yeri · Updated: October 15, 2026 · About 8 min read

The most common question when following a race live is: "When will the birds arrive?" The answer depends on the liberation time, the distance and the weather. In this article we describe the typical course of a race day, when the first birds can be expected, and why in some races no bird appears for hours.

1. Why is the liberation time not fixed?

Birds are usually liberated in the morning. In the summer months, liberation often takes place shortly after there is enough daylight. But the calendar is not the only thing that determines the liberation time: fog, high humidity, low cloud, rain or a storm along the route will delay the release. Depending on the weather and the decision of those responsible for the liberation, the release may slip towards midday; if conditions do not improve, the race may be postponed to the next day.

So there is no point waiting for birds before the liberation time appears on the live screen. The real clock starts once the liberation is recorded.

2. When can the first bird be expected?

You can roughly work out when the first bird might arrive from the distance and velocity ranges. In normal conditions, racing pigeons usually home at around 900–1300 metres per minute. With a strong tailwind this can rise to 1600–2000 m/min; very rarely, with storm-force tailwinds, velocities above 2500 m/min have been recorded.

Example: Take a 55 km race. A bird flying 55,000 metres at 1300 metres per minute arrives in about 42 minutes; a bird flying at 900 metres per minute arrives in about 61 minutes. If a very strong wind blows from behind, the first bird may even be seen in under half an hour.

Over long distances the same calculation stretches into hours: in a 500 km race, 1100 metres per minute means about 7.5 hours. That is why it is normal for birds liberated in the morning to arrive in the afternoon or early evening. We explain separately how velocity is calculated in the race velocity article.

3. Mass arrivals: why do birds come in together?

Pigeons fly a large part of the race in a flock. So after the first birds arrive, many birds can be seen arriving one after another within a short time. Fanciers call this a mass arrival.A common observation is that roughly the first fifth of the birds entered arrive during this busy period, with times very close to each other.

During a mass arrival, positions change by seconds. There may be only a minute or two between a bird that is 40th and one that is 90th. So in such races, the time gap to the winner is more informative than the position number on its own.

4. Late birds and overnighting

After the mass arrival, arrivals become sparse. Birds that break away from the flock, lose their direction, tire or rest along the way arrive later. Pigeons generally do not fly in the dark; birds that cannot get home by evening land somewhere along the way, spend the night there and continue the next morning. That is why some birds may arrive the next day or even several days later.

Organisations usually close the race after a set period. Birds arriving after closing may have returned to the loft but may not be included in the ranking. A bird not appearing in the result list does not necessarily mean it has been lost.

5. What may have happened if no birds arrive for hours?

Sometimes, well beyond the expected time, still no bird has appeared. There can be two different reasons for this, and it is important to tell them apart:

Smashed race: An unexpected change of weather on the route, a strong wind or fog can break up the flock. Birds arrive one by one and very late; the return rate drops. Fanciers call such races hard or "smashed" races.
Connection problem: The birds may have arrived, but because the internet connection of the electronic timing system at the loft was down, the arrivals were not transmitted to the live screen. When the connection comes back, the arrivals appear all at once, with their real arrival times.

It is not always possible to tell the two apart with certainty from the live screen. With a connection problem, the records are completed afterwards with their real times; in a smashed race, arrivals are spread over hours and days.

6. Reading the live race screen correctly

In Güvercin Yeri's live race centre, each race shows the distance, liberation time, number of birds released and arrived, and elapsed time. When reading it, it helps to keep the following in mind:

Assess the time elapsed since liberation together with the distance; the velocity ranges above give you a rough expectation.
When the first bird arrives, the real speed of the race becomes clear; remember that the mass arrival usually happens in a time window close to this first time.
The number of arrived birds not changing for a long time is not always bad news; it may also be a connection delay.
For the definitive ranking, go by the result the organisation publishes after the race has closed.

How does race day differ over short and long distances?

In short-distance races (roughly 100–300 km), birds usually arrive before noon and the race is largely over within a few hours. In these races flocks break up less, the mass arrival is more pronounced and the differences between positions are measured in seconds.

In long-distance races (500 km and above) the picture changes. The birds fly all day, pass through different weather zones along the route, and the flocks gradually split into small groups. The first birds may arrive in the afternoon or early evening; birds that cannot make it home by the last light of the day spend the night on the way and return the next morning. That is why the number of birds arriving the next day is much higher over long distance than over short distance, and this alone is not counted as a failure.

The season also has an effect. On long summer days, birds have more daylight time to fly. As the days shorten towards autumn, the proportion of birds that cannot get home by evening over the same distance may increase.

When following your own bird

If you are following your own bird in a race, it helps to follow this sequence while waiting for it: first note the liberation time and the distance, work out a rough window based on the normal velocity range, see the day's real speed when the first bird arrives and update your expectation accordingly. If your bird has not shown up during the mass arrival, there is no need to panic; there can be many ordinary reasons, such as a connection delay, the bird not trapping straight away, or breaking away from the flock.