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Origin: Century old breed from Upper Italy. The Italian name is “Reggianino”. First imported to Germany in 1880.
General Impression: Small gracious pigeon with a horizontally carried body on more than medium-long legs.
Breed Characteristics
Head: Small and broad. Top skull flattered, therefore the frontal and the back of the head meet the top skull at a blunt angle. Frontal medium steep rising behind the beak.
Eyes: Large and vivid, orange in color. White and pied's have bull eyes. Eye Cere matching the color of the plumage; Ice bar and Ice checks has plum-blue to blue-gray eye Ceres.
Beak: Medium length, slightly down set, set at a blunt angle with the forehead. Color matching the color of the plumage. Ice bar and Ice checks have black beaks. Wattles small and of fine texture, not too developed.
Neck: Medium length, bent slightly backwards, carried proudly, small gullet, well-developed breast frill.
Breast: Broad and rounded.
Back: Wide, flat, horizontal.
Wings: Not too long, carried on the tail, wing butts standing slightly away from the body.
Tail: Somewhat short, horizontally carried and well closed.
Legs: Clean of feathers, medium-long in length, Lower leg entirely visible. In action the bird stands on the tips of its toes.
Colors: White, black, dun, red, yellow, blue check, blue bar, blue barless, silver check, silver bar, gelercht (lark check), mehllicht (lark bar), ash red check, ash red bar, cream check, cream bar, ice check, ice bar, grizzle and pied in any color.
Color and marking: All color rich and dense, spread evenly on the entire body, In blues a colored rump is desired. The buff breast of the gelercht and mehllicht should fade from the top to the bottom of the breast. Ice colored birds should show an icy blue all over the body with lots of feather powder, their bars and tail bar should be black. Their flight and sub plumage should be dark. Ice checks have black checkering on the shield. Grizzles should be as evenly marked as possible.
Serious faults: Body too long; sloping station; too low on the legs (short legs); rounded head, frontal too flat; too long thing or very short beak, absence of the angle between beak and frontal; neck too short, lack of breast frill; heavy faults in color or makings.
Judging order (ordered in which traits are judged / not order of importance): General impression – carriage and station of the body - form of head and beak - color of plumage eyes and beak.
Order of Importance: From of head and beak – Carriage and station of body (Length of neck, body, and legs) – Color of plumage, eyes and beak – General impression.
Band size: 7 mm
Here is another breeding pair. The hen is the gray, and the cock is the white.
They are the King and Queen of the roost.
