What Is a Red Bar Racing Pigeon? The Colour, Genetics & Facts Explained

Few racing pigeons are as instantly recognisable as a good Red Bar.

Against a loft filled with the familiar blues and chequers, that warm red colouring can stand out immediately. But there’s much more going on underneath those feathers than simply being a “red pigeon”.

In fact, Red Bar describes two different things at once: the bird’s base colour and its wing pattern.

And once you understand the genetics behind it, Red Bars become even more interesting.

What exactly is a Red Bar pigeon?

A Red Bar is generally an ash-red pigeon carrying the bar wing pattern.

That’s an important distinction.

“Red” describes the base colour.

“Bar” describes the pattern.

The classic bar pattern produces two distinct bars across each folded wing.

So a Red Bar isn’t simply a red version of a pigeon picked at random. It is the combination of an ash-red base colour with the bar pattern.

The same principle is why we can have familiar descriptions such as Blue Bar: the underlying colour and the wing pattern are separate characteristics.

The surprising genetics behind the red colour

This is where things get particularly interesting.

The major colour system in domestic pigeons includes three principal base colours:

Ash-red
Blue/black
Brown

The wild-type colour is blue/black.

Ash-red is produced by a variant of a pigmentation gene called TYRP1 — tyrosinase-related protein 1.

Researchers studying domestic pigeons found that the ash-red mutation changes the way pigmentation is produced. Ash-red birds have a very different balance of the pigments responsible for their feather colour compared with blue/black pigeons.

Even more remarkably, researchers examining ash-red pigeons from numerous breeds found the same ash-red-associated mutation, suggesting that this colour variant may have originated once before being spread among different domestic pigeon populations through breeding.

So when you’re looking at an ash-red racing pigeon, you’re looking at a colour mutation with a surprisingly deep genetic history.

Red Bar genetics are sex-linked

Here’s one of the facts that catches many newcomers out.

The major colour gene in pigeons is located on the Z sex chromosome.

Birds don’t use the same XX/XY system as humans.

Male pigeons have two Z chromosomes (ZZ).

Female pigeons have one Z and one W chromosome (ZW).

That means a cock carries two copies of the major colour gene, while a hen carries only one.

And that makes colour inheritance different between males and females.

Ash-red is dominant over blue

At the major colour locus, ash-red sits above blue and brown in the dominance hierarchy.

In simplified terms:

Ash-red > Blue > Brown

That means a cock doesn’t necessarily need two copies of the ash-red allele to appear ash-red.

If he carries ash-red on one Z chromosome and blue on the other, the dominant ash-red can determine his visible base colour.

This creates an interesting possibility:

An ash-red cock can potentially be carrying blue underneath his visible colour.

A hen is different because she only has one copy of this colour gene.

That difference is one of the reasons pigeon colour breeding can become surprisingly complicated once you start following pedigrees through several generations.

A Red Bar is NOT the same as a recessive red

This is an important one.

An ash-red Red Bar and a recessive red pigeon are genetically different.

Recessive red is controlled by another genetic system involving SOX10, rather than the sex-linked major colour locus responsible for ash-red.

Recessive red can also mask other underlying colour and pattern information.

So two pigeons that somebody casually describes as “red” may actually be genetically very different birds.

This is why accurate colour terminology matters.

So where do the actual bars come from?

Here’s another fascinating bit.

The bar pattern is controlled separately from the major base colour.

Research into rock-pigeon wing patterns has identified four major pattern types:

T-check
Checker / Chequer
Bar
Barless

These patterns are associated with a region involving the NDP gene.

And here’s the really interesting part:

Bar is the ancestral wing pattern.

In other words, the familiar two-bar pattern isn’t some modern creation of racing-pigeon breeders. It’s the ancestral pattern associated with the rock pigeon from which domestic pigeons descend.

So the classic bars you see across the wings of a modern racing pigeon have extremely old biological roots.

Why doesn’t every Red Bar look identical?

Put ten Red Bars together and you may see considerable variation.

Some can appear lighter.

Others deeper and richer.

The wing bars can vary in intensity, and other parts of the plumage can differ too.

That’s because the words Red Bar don’t describe every gene affecting the bird’s appearance.

They identify the major colour and pattern, but additional genetic modifiers can influence pigmentation and how the finished bird looks.

Researchers have identified several other pigmentation systems in pigeons capable of lightening, darkening or otherwise altering feather colour.

So two birds can both legitimately be Red Bars without looking like identical copies of one another.

That’s part of the fascination.

Here’s something else to look at: the tail

One useful visual difference between ash-red and blue/black pigeons can be found in the tail.

The University of Utah’s pigeon genetics material points out that ash-red birds do not have the dark tail bar characteristic of blue/black birds.

For somebody learning pigeon colours, that’s a useful detail to know.

Don’t just look at the wings.

Look at the whole bird.

Does being Red Bar make a racing pigeon faster?

No colour should be treated as a guarantee of racing ability.

A pigeon doesn’t become a better racer simply because it’s Red Bar, Blue Bar, Chequer, Pied or Grizzle.

Racing performance involves far more than plumage colour: genetics associated with performance, health, conditioning, loft management, training, motivation and numerous other factors all matter.

Colour is one visible part of the bird.

Performance is another question entirely.

That’s worth remembering whenever appearance starts getting mixed up with racing quality.

Why are Red Bars less common than Blue Bars?

Walk into many racing lofts and you’ll probably see considerably more blue-based birds than ash-red birds.

Blue is the wild-type base colour of the rock pigeon and remains extremely widespread throughout domestic and racing populations.

Ash-red, by comparison, represents a derived colour variant.

Individual racing families and lofts can obviously look very different depending on what their breeders have selected over generations, so there isn’t a sensible universal percentage that tells us how rare Red Bars are in racing pigeons.

But their comparative scarcity in many lofts is one reason a striking Red Bar can immediately catch the eye.

Can two pigeons produce colours you weren’t expecting?

Absolutely — particularly when a cock is carrying a colour allele that isn’t obvious from his appearance.

Because males have two copies of the sex-linked major colour locus, what you see isn’t necessarily the full genetic story.

And colour is only the beginning.

Once pattern, dilution, recessive red and other modifiers enter a breeding programme, predicting every youngster by simply looking at Mum and Dad becomes increasingly unreliable without knowing their genetics and ancestry.

That’s why pigeon colour genetics can go from:

“That’s a Red Bar.”

to:

“Hang on… how the hell did they produce that?”

surprisingly quickly.

Red Bar or Ash-Red Bar — which is correct?

In everyday pigeon conversation, Red Bar is widely understood.

When discussing the genetics precisely, however, ash-red bar gives more information because it identifies the actual major base colour as ash-red and the pattern as bar.

For Bird Folk, we’ll generally use Red Bar because that’s the familiar language people recognise, while explaining the underlying ash-red genetics where it matters.

More than just a colour

That’s what makes the Red Bar interesting.

At first glance, it’s simply a beautiful racing pigeon colour.

Look deeper and you’re seeing two separate genetic systems working together — a sex-linked ash-red base colour and an ancestral bar wing pattern.

You’re looking at inheritance that behaves differently between cocks and hens.

You’re looking at a pigmentation mutation researchers have traced across numerous domestic pigeon breeds.

And you’re looking at a wing pattern whose roots stretch right back to the ancestral rock pigeon.

Not bad for something most people would simply describe as:

“That red one.”

Explore the Red Bar Collection

The Bird Folk Red Bar collection celebrates one of the most distinctive colours in the racing pigeon world.

Discover original Red Bar clothing, embroidered headwear, artwork and gifts created specifically for people who live and breathe pigeons.

EXPLORE THE RED BAR COLLECTION

Continue Reading the Racing Pigeon Journal

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Racing Pigeon Colours & Patterns Explained

The Complete Guide to Racing Pigeons

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