The Birds

A few years ago, during sitting on my favourite balcony in Amman at Al Rashid, I noticed a flock of pigeons circling over the city roofs. They looked mysterious enough to get me interested in finding out more. I climbed some roofs back then and found out that training pigeons is one of the most famous hobbies in the Middle East. In Damascus it was time to climb a roof again. It was not as easy this time in view of the fact that it is now illegal to keep the birds due to the last bird flu epidemic. Nebir is a bird fancier for already thirty years. It is addictive, as smoking water pipes, he said. The pigeons owners buy their pets on a special bazaar open on Friday. A pigeon can cost anything between 15-150 EUR. Nebir’s most precious cock pigeon is oddly called the German. His feet are adorned by plastic jewellery. Nebir spends at least two hours a day on his roof. Sometimes more, if he has to treat or bath his pigeons in salty water. Luckily he has enough time for he is not married.