The most expensive bird in the world | YouTube Video

[Posted by Chuck Almdale, submitted by Alert Reader Lina Gallucci]

This bird topped the “11 most expensive birds” list I posted yesterday, so at least this particular expensive bird is for real.

A two-year-old Belgian racing pigeon called New Kim is about to set a world record of over $1.5 million at auction, the price even more exceptional because the bird is female, the online auction house said.

It seems that the Belgians and the Dutch are the most fanatical pigeon racers in the world, and will pay enormous amounts for a good ol’ Rock Pigeon. Why? Who can plumb the mysteries of the human heart. But it’s worth noting that it was the Dutch who—in the early 1630’s—were willing to pay 100,000 florins (or Dutch guilders) for forty tulip bulbs.

What’s a 1630’s florin worth, you ask? Very difficult to calculate the value in today’s dollars or euros. Here’s the cost of a few other items (Wikipedia) of that era:

• A “tun” (930 kg or 2,050 lb) of butter – about 100 florins
• A skilled laborer – 150–350 florins a year
• “Eight fat swine” – 240 florins.

As they say, do the math.

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Here’s a quickie history lesson on Rock Pigeons which I wrote a few years back, always worth a re-visit.

What About That Dove? – Sunday Morning Bible Bird Study I

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Finally, here’s the next chapter in the Belgian racing pigeon saga, from your number one source of Belgian racing pigeon news, the South China Post.