The Curious Case of the Backflipping Bird: The Parlor Roller

Check out my other channel TopTenz! / toptenznet
→Some of our favorites: • Featured
→Subscribe for new videos every day!
kzbin.info...
Never run out of things to say at the water cooler with TodayIFoundOut! Brand new videos 7 days a week!
More from TodayIFoundOut
What Happens if You Leave Your House to a Pet in Your Will
• What Happens if You Le...
Why a Geckos Feet Can Stick to Almost Anything
• Why a Geckos Feet Can ...
In this video:
While there are many birds that have naturally evolved to be flightless, there’s only one kind of bird humans have selectively bred until it no longer possesses an ability shared by most of its kin- the parlor roller.
Want the text version?: www.todayifoundout.com/index.p...
Sources:
www.ufaw.org.uk/birds/pigeons...
academic.oup.com/jhered/artic...
www.farmshow.com/a_article.ph...
barnhartlofts.com/parlors.htm
• Video
• Parlor Roller Competition
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_dove
www.roysfarm.com/parlor-roller...
• Video
• Parlor Roller Demo Ree...
www.pigeons.biz/forums/f101/pa...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pa...
Image Credit:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flightl...
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parlor_...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumbler...
www.flickr.com/photos/jimgiff...
Music from Jukedeck - create your own at jukedeck.com.

[@TodayIFoundOut]

For more fun avian facts check out this video that reveals The First Known Robot Was Created Around 400 BC and Was a Mechanical Bird: kzbin.info/www/bejne/l4iloqd5otijhK8

[@ThirstysURL]

I had a few roll right into the ground as a kid 🤣

[@droid4161]

Selective breeding so they hit the ground every time they try to fly, all just for our entertainment, so fucked up. Humanity doing the worst as usual. Good job on calling it out, instead of just encouraging for people to accept it.

[@marcscordato4385]

Would have love to have seen footage of tumbling birds !

[@GermansEagle]

pretty lazy editing

[@GermansEagle]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/a4rLk6eEitxmhdE

[@marcscordato4385]

German Eagle I looked it up on you tube the flips are so fast they must slow the camera down so you can see it. Check it out it’s very interesting

[@Tehevilcookieable]

Yeah, it's kinda a major oversight.

[@TheGadgetPanda]

Presumably they didn't want to have to pay for the footage. You'll notice all the images are from Wikipedia (ie they don't have to pay anyone for them). Also, the video of the people bowling birds is less charming than it sounds. If they showed it here, most of the comments would be debates about the relative cruelty or not of the practise. Might get them demonetised.

[@madhatt3r93]

Poor birds! Selective breeding goes too far too often :(🐦

[@ECPlex]

You didn’t even show one video of a backflipping parlor roller!! Wtf??

[@drivesthecar3247]

Alex Clark my sentiments exactly!

[@jennacook2505]

+

[@GermansEagle]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/a4rLk6eEitxmhdE

[@HerSilkScarfGagsMe]

yeah

[@653j521]

German Eagle Thanks. That must be exhausting for the bird. Sad.

[@fuzzywzhe]

The reason he never showed a video of the Palror roller, it's because it's depressing as hell. It just looks like a bird with severe neurological problems. You just feel really bad for the bird.

[@EricToTheScionti]

Lol no

[@colnixon8989]

@@EricToTheScionti You sound as defective as the birds.

[@Dsdcain]

Too weird. I think you're right about alcohol being involved in the invention of pigeon rolling as a sport. Thanks Simon and *TIFO* crew for the video. :)

[@greengiant1006]

Dsdcain I

[@BewareTheLilyOfTheValley]

This is one of those videos where having moving footage would've been really great. I truly want to see these birds without having to do a separate search.

[@xmarkxspot293]

So... they are flipping the bird. Everyone has done that.

[@kaiserwigglesiii2369]

XmarkX spot underrated

[@crovax1375]

Great now I have to find video of people hurling birds like bowling balls. Edit: I did find some video of bird hurling, and the birds don't seem to mind tumbling around. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mKHUZqV9eM-Frsk

[@hndrwn]

travis f drop the link, capt

[@crovax1375]

Hendrawan Wijoyo kzbin.info/www/bejne/mKHUZqV9eM-Frsk

[@dianethedinosaur3228]

I used to raise many kinds of fancy pigeons & had several pairs of Tumblers & Rollers. The variety of fancy pigeons is huge, including Fantails, Frillbacks, Jacobins (my favorites) & many more. It can also run into a tremendous amount of money. You can look at the pigeon breeds & see the hand of humans in their appearance. Although I enjoyed raising pigeons, there were some breeds I would not own because they had been transformed so much that their beaks are now so small they can no longer feed their offspring. The chicks have to be fostered to other (normal beaked) pigeons.

[@droid4161]

Selective breeding so they hit the ground every time they try to fly, all just for our entertainment, so fucked up. Humanity doing the worst as usual.

[@micahphilson]

No footage of this? Why not? That's exactly what this video needed.

[@travix-1969]

lmgtfy.com/?t=v&q=parlor+roller

[@TodayIFoundOut]

No rights to such. Kind of niche thing that stock video footage sites don't have. :-)

[@davidleblanc5271]

the people who throw those poor birds ought to be charged with animal cruelty

[@michaeleverett2650]

They don't get thrown, they get released from the hand and they roll on their own, the guy in the video describing them was wrong when he said they get tossed like a bowling ball.

[@ultrafox2773]

I was really hoping for some video footage lol

[@ultrafox2773]

Google Polar Roller Pigeons, I found a decent video of it

[@GermansEagle]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/a4rLk6eEitxmhdE

[@cityraildude]

Me too

[@fennecfoxfanatic]

Poor animals. Breeding for disabilities is messed up

[@RetroBerner]

You should have include some footage of the behavior

[@travix-1969]

lmgtfy.com/?t=v&q=parlor+roller

[@dennisanderson3895]

3:07 "And at this point, we're going to assume that alcohol was someway involved in the invention of this sport." LOL! Simon is awesome AND knows human behavior! On a more sober note, I have to wonder: WHY would someone want to bred a bird to be unable to fly? I mean...WHY?

[@saragorn5033]

I remember as a kid some guy down the street from me had a bunch of them he kept,bought and sold they were always real fun to watch but something they forgot to mention is that sometimes they don't recover after tumbling down nd go kersplat on the pavement exploding in a tiny ball of feathers

[@I_am_a_cat_]

Throwing pigeons like bowling balls... Lmao That's amazing but also kinda fecked up.

[@robsyko7783]

I love pigeons so much, he’s beautiful

[@soundsofthebanana]

Seems like showing the bird would have been implied.

[@maxjenningsbowler9008]

More than anything I'm wondering about the quality of life for these birds. Are they more or less happy and healthy?

[@russelllaux5454]

They are perfectly healthy I used to breed them now I breed flying rollers that fly up in the sky and roll the only reason I got out of them is because there are very few breeders left and getting enough people together to have a competition is nearly impossible

[@michaelellis2656]

Today I found: question/suggestion for a video, I was drinking a ramune melon flavored Japanese soda and I was wondering why does the soda have a marble in the bottle and the origins and who came up with the idea of the marble

[@zzzBoneSzzz]

This is going to make me look up video on this bird..they should have included a vid on this

[@aquamarine9568]

What? ...and no footage of this parlour roller rolling? I kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting😞

[@iamtheemceeusee]

::blinks at title:: there is a what, called what? and we did what?... ya got me! let's learn about this shit!

[@AveryMilieu]

Thanks, I needed that laugh.

[@obi-wankenobi8406]

Can somebody leave a video on a bird doing one

[@jjc5475]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/rpq0gJVsmbKBaJo

[@daanwilmer]

It just looks sad, like it's attempting to fly but can't.

[@jjc5475]

yeah it's really sad. it shouldn't be legal to breed these birds.

[@obi-wankenobi8406]

john pardon thanks for not linking a video of an russian man raping a cat

[@GermansEagle]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/a4rLk6eEitxmhdE

[@mygreenfroggy]

Thank you for going to the trouble of putting things in both types of measurements.

[@fatguybob2778]

Also love the glasses. I noticed you changed them awhile ago when you got that sponsorship and you chose some great ones

[@DeannaJacksonDJsDelectables]

The start of roller pigeon throwing competitions: "Hold my beer and watch this."

[@greenybird7132]

They are taking the saying ‘I’m going to roll out’ to a new level

[@Humbirdhippo5475]

Quite informative, thank you. Definitely wanted to see video footage, though.

[@crawdawd2036]

wow i am shocked i actually got to see this before notified in any way...

[@raosprid]

This is a pretty common failure these days (whether intentional or not).

[@ashknoecklein]

The entire first half of _On the Origin of Species_ is about the breeding of pigeons. It's the lens through which he discusses artificial selection. I just think about how popular keeping pigeons used to be and how quickly that hobby must have died. I know they were bred for food as well, but the pigeons Darwin talks about are fancy pet pigeons with all sorts of odd traits. If Darwin were writing this today he would probably focus on dogs. Or perhaps cats because there are so many new cat breeds founded upon a single recent random mutation.

[@stephendekoning802]

They stop rolling once given epilepsy medication, and start again as soon as medication stopped, same as main lines of birmingham rollers.

[@imagedezach]

new thumbnails are just :(

[@sabercat5490]

imagede zach they're just what? Finish what your thoughts when you comment especially if you want to give critizism. Even if you don't intend to what you say can still be helpful, if you don't say things to hurt or diminish ones feeling or sound like a bastard or a freaking duche.

[@mechasentai]

imagede zach Seriously? That's what you get out of this? That's the only thing to cone to mind?

[@esra_erimez]

thx for this info

[@primemover1930]

Got him mixed up with Vsauce again from the screen shot. Still a good vid

[@leeolsson5271]

Love the new style of thumbnails. ❤️

[@Poodleinacan]

Now I gotta watch videos of that bird.

[@donaldhobson8873]

Even when all we had was selective breading, such birds were created. Soon genetic modification will be orders of magnitude faster and easier. With far more extreme changes being possible. What kind of bizarre and ridiculous animals will we see then? Could creating a new animal be as easy as putting body parts and characteristics together in an app, then sending it to a bio-printer? Will we see "build a pet" shops, where kids come in, put animal parts together in VR, and then go home with a living pet?

[@mindofthelion712]

My longtime favorite animal, second only to Glaucus Atlanricus.

[@user-uo5em1sy2s]

Parlor roller: The hidden animagus form of Lauren Lopez.

[@lukewelken8968]

I actually had a few of them when I was younger

[@lexbeltran1354]

True Birmingham Roller Pigeons are a joy to watch.

[@yessumyecrad]

Don't breed rollers with tumblers or they'll tumble straight to the ground! ;)

[@TheGoukaruma]

Meh, no footage. Is it so hard to get a short clip of a bird doing a flip?

[@TazoLatte]

This is great

[@Scereyaha]

Why the heck would you do this to a perfectly good bird. Breeding animals for human amusement, at the expense of the animal, is one of the worst things humans do.

[@adalaza]

Interesting topic

[@gimoroemma]

Squewe sent me here from top 10 bird facts.

[@mango7470]

This Breed is just disgusting. Is like making humans with no legs and arms or something, so they can't walk at all. It's just gross. It's natural to pigeons to fly, and usually for a long distances. Making a bird unable to fly is a torture. They don't feel save at all, the can't run from a danger, but instead of that just roll and get really frustrated. That's just sick why would a breed like this exist. I'm a bird owner, and when I imagine my birds or me would be like that, it makes my stomach hurt. It's just heartbreaking

[@HerSilkScarfGagsMe]

wow, new glasses! nice +1

[@fobiaargyst5875]

I'm here because of Pigeonetics. Also, nice vid.

[@arthurvanrodds2772]

The new style of the thumbnails is weird this channel seemed serious which also gave trust in the infomation showed

[@chuckk458]

How the heck did the garter toss (the wedding tradition) become a thing?

[@AbhishekRaj-mt8xs]

*Johnny bhai..!* 😂😂😂

[@Techn9cian123]

Hello Clarice.....

[@popcultureinelchuco]

It's almost a crime you didn't show a video example!

[@geurtr]

So where did the custom of "flipping the bird" find it's origin.

[@xxCyinxx]

how could you do this video and not add footage?!

[@ngth9898]

Today I want to find out, why/when/where people started to say say "Hello" when they pick up the phone?

[@anjoLas]

Yeah, we're back on the path of knowledge.

[@StopChangingUsernamesYouTube]

So *that's* what they did before the Internet!

[@stevechurch3131]

this video needs a video of the "rolling" for reference.

[@KraftyKreator]

Video or graph or sketch of what the bird is doing would be lovely.

[@morrigan191]

First time I've ever given you a thumbs down. This needed footage of at least a few rolls!

[@davidjockers355]

Please do "DOES THE ROYAL WEDDING REALLY BRING IN MORE TOURISM MONEY TO THE UK THAN IT COST THE TAXPAYER?" I trust you guys. lol.

[@robertespinoza5958]

I used to have a Parker tumbler and they can't fly, there flippen massive, what u talking bout willis

[@christianterrill3503]

Not a single video of the birds rolling around of flying weird?!?!

[@reygallegos1]

I love this channel and Simon seems awesome, but I can’t explain how disappointed I am in not seeing even a single pigeon do a single flip... What. The hell?

[@debbiemajorphotography7272]

Was that 662 foot roll downhill with a back wind?

[@doreenb1837]

I need proof...where's the video of such a bird.????? i'M STARTING TO DOUBT THIS CHANNEL.

[@selfkid7]

My dad had pigeons like this they had fluffy feet as well .... had an argument at work years ago bout these birds the lad didnt believe that they did it lol.... a should tag him in this vid but it was like 10 year ago ffs lol.

[@LimitedState]

You misspelled simply at the end as simpy. ;)

[@dere7343]

Limited State alright mum!

[@LimitedState]

LOL, don't take it so hard. Ooops.. nvm

[@dere7343]

Limited State kzbin.info/www/bejne/iXOQoniPi8mpjqM Take it hard ;^)

[@kevinbooth-]

Talking about tumbling and rolling birds but never shows a single video clip of it.... Sounds like it's bs ;)

[@raymondstrunk4770]

An episode about parlor rollers and there's no video of rolling birds?

[@kirbymarchbarcena]

There were no ninja masters to train these birds

[@johnblaze8774]

What about the chicken that was bred to no longer fly?

[@makeracistsafraidagain]

I had to check KZbin... and it’s real! And very strange.

[@-.._.-_...-_.._-..__..._.-.-.-]

Are you insinuating that the theory of evolution is true?

[@engsetters4633]

Yes they roll across the ground, but they started as a pigeon, and still this day they are still a pigeon.

[@earnestjackson1642]

I raised roller pigeons....and its pigeons that fly and flip

[@superdupergrover9857]

i think those birds need to turn down the gain on their elevator control circuits.

[@fortunateson6070]

There is a breed of duck called Domestic that can't fly.

[@dnomyarnostaw]

"Tumbler pigeons are come by lots of artificial selection. These pigeons were indicated in India before 1600 and their origin probably in the east and later being brought to Europe. Early characteristics of these pigeons were- small in size, various colours and excess flight tendency. In 19th century England makes short faced-tumbler which is ultimately a show breed. In Bangladesh perspectives the tumblers are very ancient. Pigeon flying was a nice hobby for tumbling and great height in the sky. Due to long time flying and for predator birds sometime pigeons are lost and injured. These tumbler pigeons are called highflyer and from the very beginning crosses with blue rock pigeon or other domestic breeds were normal practice of the peoples. Now in Dhaka and Rajshahi, Bangladesh there are found huge tumbler pigeons" www.ijrpb.org/pdf/v2-i1/2.pdf

[@PigeonsV3]

My uncle has a brown back flipping bird

[@pietercrause5646]

So irresponsible and cruel selective breeding produced a bird that would not be able to survive without human care at every stage of its life. Wonderful....

[@hackiehackerson]

they're having actual seizures and losers are profiting.

[@tommyakers217]

In today's day all we get is your assurance that it is real and photos of pidgins standing like a should I say pidgins. So when was the last competition early to mid 1900's.. Seriously you going to sell bridges next?

[@ToWhom]

why was there no footage of these birds included. i think you need to re make this video

[@Oncus2]

No video of the actual flipping birds? Why the hell not?

[@hdgehog6]

"......alcohol was involved ..." Well, duh!

[@Mictesting2233]

Poor little birds

[@qwertyuiopzxcfgh]

I clicked on this video to see a backflipping bird. I did not see a backflipping bird. Why?

[@cityraildude]

Footage?

[@bigwig5395]

Show some footage

[@VerryLongName]

Never heard of a rolling bird

[@BothHands1]

No footage of the bird???

[@geetarwanabe]

Humans are fucking sadistic - what a cruel sport.