Yasmin Bailey, a BSc Honours student at the University of Chester, produced a dissertation titled ‘Do Racing Pigeons have a Colour or Calorific Preference?’ as part of her course in Animal Behaviour and Welfare.

In three stages over 32 days, she gave eight birds foods of different colour and calorific values – the results were somewhat interesting, and we are grateful to Yasmin for allowing us to publish her final document below.

Yasmin received great support from the Oakleys at Wirswall Farm in Shropshire, who allowed her access to their loft and pigeons.

Read Yasmin’s dissertation here