ICE PIGEON

ORIGIN: One of the oldest of the German color pigeons developed in Saxony, Silesia and South Germany.

GENERAL APPEARANCE: Somewhat rounded like the field pigeon, especially the muffed variety, the feathers of which are somewhat looser, length 33 to 35 cm.

We are currently looking for a picture of an Ice Pigeon. If any of you have raised a champion and have a picture, please send it to azpigeons.org

HEAD: Always clean rather long and forming a regular curve.

EYES: In barless, porcelain, white bar and spangled: dark eyes (bull); Black barred, checkered (muffed), Forellen (clean legged checkered), have yellow to orange eyes.

BEAK: Long and thin, black in color, wattle small and white powdered.

THROAT: Well cut out. (No gullet)

NECK: Short, carried slightly forward. Medium in center, wide-set at the shoulders.

BREAST: Broad, low, full. Feathers from the breast should cover wing butts to give a round appearance when viewed from the front.

BACK: Wide at the shoulders, tapering off downward and sloping slightly.

WINGS: Medium long, resting on top of tail, the wings should be held tight to the body, (no protruding wing butts). They should also cover well over the back without sticking up over the rump area, (sideboards), they should not cross at the tips.

TAIL: Medium long, firmly closed. Slightly downward, almost horizontal.

LEGS: Clean legged: Bright red in color, dark toenails.
Muffed: Short, heavily muffed with long hock feathers. Muffs should sweep back into the hocks having a sickle like appearance, fan shaped with no split in the feathers between the front and second toes. The shape of the foot feather is more important than length, however, the foot feathers should not be less than three inches long.

FEATHERING: Soft and full, with much feather powder to make the color delicate and soft.

COLOR: In all markings the ground color should be pure ice blue, as light and soft as possible, so light as to appear almost white. They must resemble the color of ice from pure clear water. The entire body is provided with a layer of white powder. Each bird produces this powder in varying amounts. If a healthy, well cared for Ice Pigeon is held for a short length of time, especially against a black coat or jacket, one will look as if they have paid a visit to a miller. No part of the body should show any other color tone except for the flights and the tail bar, which should be as dark as possible, approaching black. There also must be a band of ground color beyond the dark tail bar. The wedge under the tail should also exhibit the same color as the remainder of the bird. Wedge feathers must be present for the judge to view.

MARKINGS

BARLESS: Devoid of any marking on the wing shield.
WHITE BAR: Are similar to the barless except for two pure white wing bars with a thin black border parallel to each other. These bars must be in good contrast to the ground color. They must go across the entire length of the shield, with the black edging remaining as straight as possible.
SPANGLE: Are similar to the barless, except the wing shield shows a 3-cornered pure white, narrow black-bordered check. The pattern should be triangular in shape, white with a fine edged border in black on the light ice blue background. The pattern must be even over the entire wing coverts in the spangles. The flight feathers in this marking sometimes show grizzling, which is allowed, but solid colored flights are preferred. The pattern must be even throughout. No rust should be present, in either the spangling or the flights, also the spangling must not extend up on the neck of the bird.
BLACK BARRED: Show two deeply colored black bars. The bars should be narrow and even from top to bottom. They must go across the entire length of the shield and parallel to each other.
BLACK CHECK: Have a dark triangular pattern over a light background color. The pattern must be even over the entire wing coverts. No rust should be present in either the checking or the flights. (When clean legged, it is called Forellen).
PORCELAIN: This marking is the same as spangled, except on the spangling it has four colors. A yellowish brown color appears between the white spot and the black edging. This marking was bred many years ago in Germany and is very rare today if bred at all.