Transylvania Province has a difficult geographical environment for the racing pigeons sport. Surrounded by mountains, Transylvania is perhaps the most difficult region in Romania when it comes to racing pigeons. Despite this, this sport continued to develop in this area. From this point of view, Transylvania is made up of nine county associations, which together have an important number of pigeons and fanciers at the beginning of each season, as will be seen from the analysis we propose below.

The nine associations from which is formed are: Alba, Cluj, Mureș, Bistrița-Năsăud, Hunedoara, Sibiu, Brașov, Harghita and Covasna. Even if they are in a more difficult area for pigeon competitions, the fanciers in these associations manage to obtain important results at national level. Thus, analyzing the National Catalog of the last seven years, we found that all nine associations in Transylvania generated more national champions, most of them referring to the Short distance, Middle distance and All-round categories.

Cluj, Alba, Hunedoara and Brașov are fighting for supremacy

As the number of fanciers and pigeons proposed at the beginning of the season, the associations Cluj, Alba, Hunedoara and Brașov “compete” for supremacy. In fact, the four groups are the largest in all Transylvania, each consisting of several hundred fanciers. Approximately as last year, for this season, the representatives of the Cluj Association are based on 280 fanciers and a total of over 14,000 pigeons in the first stage. This year also comes with a new flight route for Cluj fanciers, the competitions plan being made up of stages on the route Slovakia. On the other side, in Alba, there are about 200 fanciers and around 10,000 pigeons at the beginning of the season, with the mention that we are talking about an association that will compete after two flight plans. Half divided, the fanciers in Alba will also follow in 2020 the directions of Hungary, Slovakia and Poland. As mentioned above, in the Hunedoara Association, about 300 members were announced for the 2020 season, which gives hope to the organizers that between 10,000 and 12,000 pigeons will be hired at the first stage of the season. The largest number of fanciers can be found in Brasov, 320 being registered for the new season. They will compete over 10,000 pigeons in 2020, hoping for a much better season than last year.

In the rest of the associations, the average number is 5,000-6,000 pigeons

The associations in northern Transylvania are “poorer” when it comes to number of pigeons and fanciers, but in a continuous ascent. In Sibiu, for the 2020 season we expect around 100 active fanciers and about 5,500-6,000 pigeons. Compared to previous years, we can say that in Sibiu there is a constant number of pigeons and fanciers announced at the beginning of the competitive year. In the immediate vicinity, in Mureș, for this year’s season there will be 150 fanciers and 5,000-6,000 pigeons, while in Harghita and Covasna associations, as in previous years, we talk about 120 fanciers and 5,000 pigeons, respectively 130 fanciers and about 4,000 pigeons. One of the smallest association from Transylvania, but with alot of potential, is the Bistrita-Nasaud Columbophile Association. Under the coordination of a very dedicated president, Bistrița-Năsăud Association has grown steadily, at present having 75 active fanciers and a number of 4,500 pigeons for the aproaching season.

Therefore, it is expected that about 1,500 fanciers from the nine associations in the province of Transylvania will start in the new season, the total number of pigeons being around 70,000.