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Pigeon breeds have been developed over many years and Charles Darwin would instantly recognise and hardly see a change in 165 years of such breeds as ‘The Darwin 6’, the English Carrier, English Pouter, Scandaroon, Exhibition Fantail, Barb and the diminutive English Short Faced Tumbler all of which Darwin would be most familiar with inside and out.

However what of breeds that have changed not just once in 165 years but several times. In that time a breed that I know well as my main breed since I started in fancy pigeons 35 years ago the Modena pigeon. This breed has been developed by pigeon show fanciers to suit their countries likes and style. The Modena was originally a small slim hen type flying breed first noted in the town of Modena in Northern Italy as far back as the 1300’s. It was a flock flying pigeon used in flying sport. The aim was to fly your birds at dusk and to entice birds from other flocks to mingle with yours, flags were used to keep the flocks flying and even, it is said, to give commands to the flocks to mingle with ‘enemy flocks’ to be captured for ransom or kept if the colour or pattern was rare. This sport was practised in other cities around the world using other flying type pigeon breeds. Until recent years in Glasgow, Scotland U.K. using the Horseman thief pouter, a breed still widely kept in Scotland but more for showing these days with good entries at the Scottish shows. New York City, USA was known for its Domestic Show Flight pigeons and elsewhere in the Middle East, India and Pakistan pigeons are still widely kept for flying but not using the Modena pigeon.

So let’s try and map the Modena pigeon journey. Professor Bonizzi of Italy was an authority on Modenas and in particular the colours of Modena which he described in his book. in the 1870’s 50 pairs of Modenas were sent to Germany to Otto Neff. German fanciers have long been and still are very good at working with colours and patterns in pigeons and the breed progressed.

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There were 3 main groups of colours :-

Gazzi which means pied however a very definite discriminate pied marking of the tail, wings and head feathers being coloured and the body feathers white.

Schietti which means plain having no pied.

Magnani which we know as Almond factor.

It was said there was another sub group of colours the Zarzenal but these may have been lost in time or a mis-described colour or a long lost pattern of feathering by Bonizzi

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The Germans over time preferred a much more upright, straight legged bird and crossed in another Italian breed, the Florentine, giving the Modena a wider breast which eventually became known as The German Modena (Modenser).

Mr R.C. Chavasse from Sutton Coalfield, England U.K. imported Modenas from Berlin in early 1876, said to be Bronze and Black Gazzi, he showed Modenas in 1880 and 1881. As luck would have it the German Diplomat, Otto Neff, got a posting to the German consulate in London, England U.K. in 1879. He brought some of his Modena pigeons with him and showed a pen of Modenas at the Peristeronic Show in London in 1879 and again in 1880. At the time they resembled a small Leg Horn Runt, an Italian breed Darwin would have recognised. He probably didn’t see a Modena in real feather as he had finished his pigeon studies by then but as an avid reader he would have possibly read of them in the Livestock Journal 1881 pigeon classes report as they were given a special mention by the pigeon correspondent, ‘ perhaps the most interesting feature of the show was Mr Neff’s bronze winged Italian pigeon named Modena’.

The breed was shown sporadically in England until gradually, pre first world war 1914, it began to gain momentum at shows with Mr W F Holmes becoming involved with Modena pigeons in 1909. The English Modena club, U.K. was formed under his guidance in 1910 and became one of the most popular fancy pigeon breeds at shows in the U.K. The breed had slowly become different to the original Modena imported from Germany and in turn to the original flying Italian Modena. A slightly larger bird, rounder in chest was preferred by English fanciers although it would be quite some years for the English Modena to change style but change it did

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The English Modena of the 1950/1960’s was sent to many countries around the world particularly ones with close links to England. USA, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Barbados regularly imported Modenas from the U.K.

I know the Denmark fanciers were most grateful for a gift of a large shipment of English Modenas. I had the chance to judge them over 10 years ago and they had retained the very English size and stance.

So now we had 3 types of Modena. The original smaller flying Modena, the German show Modena and the now dominant English Modena worldwide.

USA, which although had original German Modena from the 1800 ‘s and then Modena from Amsterdam and Scotland U.K. in 1900 and had their own Modena Breed club in 1926.

However things started to change in the late 70’s and 80’s, less stock was available from England although in the past large amounts of Modena were gifted and studs sold to all who wanted the English Modena around the world but less birds were available. The large collections of English Modena from gentleman Modena fanciers were just not available in the U.K. so they were no longer able to supply Modenas and gradually the USA developed there own standard for the bird. When I saw American Modena at Hartford Conn. USA National 2003 I was shocked how different to English birds they were. The American fanciers had worked on the head properties something they tend to do with their breeds and also the leg placement was very straight, much more like the German Modena but much more powerful. They had done well with the patterning particularly in Bronze Tri. The Black which won at Hartford 2003 was a super bird  I was lucky enough to take a photo on the day which was used by Ed Loomis the breeder/owner, in his  loft publicity for  years  that  followed  to illustrate the USA Modena standard and although  the light  was shining onto  the  bird  not showing its  deep  intense  black  colour  to  its  full potential  

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Today 2026, the American Modena is very popular in USA  Canada, South Africa and Norway also with the fast emerging Middle Eastern Modena fanciers.

The standard for Modenas is no longer the English Standard as such but as there was never an actual drawing of a true English standard Modena the USA fanciers claim their version is true to the standard and backed it up with standard drawings. Although I must say the Modena fanciers in France, Holland, Belguim and Denmark are still using the English Standard. In Germany the English Modena and German Modena are shown seperately but of course the German Modena is much more popular than the English breed.

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So, Charles Darwin would have been most interested in the Modena as it would have proved his theories very well. The Modena pigeon has evolved, with fanciers breeding for their likes and dislikes, over 140 years to have 4 types of Modena to compare although truly only three as there are probably none of the original flying Modenas left, only seen in old books and drawings of the time.