January/February 2026

41 – Purebred PIGEON In 1914, the American White King Association was es- tablished, holding its first show at St. Louis in 1915. Now the show side of the breed was off and running. On the other side of the country, in California, breeders Washburn and the coincidentally named King, started to develop Silver Kings. Washburn and King used basically the same stock as Harry Baker, consisting equally of Homers, Maltese, Runts, and Mondaines, rather than the Duchess. This created stockier Kings on the West Coast than on the East and also brought forth a new color class, the Silver King. The White King Association accepted the new color class and changed its name to the American King Club. In just a few years, by 1932, because of dedicated breed- ers whose names have been lost in time because they were not recorded, four more color classes, the Blue, Dun, Red and Yellow Kings were brought into existence. They are large pigeons, being 11 inches in height, 5 inches in width, body length of 9 inches, and weighing nearly 2 pounds. Today, the King remains one of the more popular show birds in America and abroad. It is found in even more colors and patterns now, including the popular Andalusian, Un- doubtedly, out there somewhere, a few dedicated, enterprising breeders will borrow a gene from another breed and develop even more colors and patterns for the King to wear. Long live the King!•