Place of origin:

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, originating from Oriental roller from Asia Minor. Created in the first half of the 20th century.

General appearance:

Elegant and temperamental, robust and well built. This pigeon is of medium size, with a proud figure and a slightly raised tail, its wings carried slopingly under the tail.

The lateral view of its figure gives a rectangular 3x2 frame. The size of the pigeon from the tip of its beak to the tip of its tail is 32-36 cm.

Breed Markings:

Head: Elongated, smooth (no crest) well rounded with no angles or flatness, slanting brow of medium height, with a slightly sloping beak. Observed from any angle, the shape of the head must have a well rounded outline. The size of the head must be proportionate to the size of the pigeon itself, i.e. it must not be too big.

Beak: Medium in length and thickness, slightly stronger at the base. The tip is slightly bended and not too thin. Flesh-white in the color with, possibility, a black spot on the tip and average nostrils. Connecting line between the upper and lower part of the beak, when extended, must pass under the pupil or even down to the upper edge of its iris.

Eye: The iris is bluish-white (pearl). The pupil is small, almost of the same diameter as the iris. The eye is average in size and must not be bulging. The eyelid is thin, narrow, flesh white in color (it must not be fat or wrinkled, red or pink or yellow). It often happens with checkered pigeons to have an iris with a touch of dark violet. This color is not desirable but it can be tolerated.

Neck: Drawn up, almost vertical, smoothly follows the line of throat and breast, its back a smooth curve, melts into the head curve. The neck is average in length in harmony with the body, thrown back a little so as to emphasize the pigeon’s proud posture.

Breast: The breast is wide, thrown out. The breast bone is not protruding and noticeable.

Back: Short, slanting and curved. Together with the tail and neck gives the pigeon a curved saddle like shape without angles or humps.

Belly: Flat, drawn in and wide.

Wings:  Long, one or two centimeters shorter than the tail with long and rather wide feathers, carried under the tail. The lateral view at breast level shows string, wide wings which form an acute angle towards the tip of the tail. The length of wings must not exceed that of the tail and, while in motion, must not touch the ground.

Tail: It is made up of 14-18 tail feathers arranged in two rows and, when spread out, look like a wide fan. When folded, the tail is rounded at the base and must have normal tail coverts. The lower part of the tail is flat with undertail coverts of the same color as the tail. The width of the tail tip is equal to that of the breast.

Twin feather is rather common and is somewhat longer than other feathers and it is considered as sign of good breed. The fail tissue must not have the oil gland.  The tail must not be grooved like Gdansk highflier’s.

Legs: Short to medium depending on the size of the pigeon. Tarsi and toes must be clean of feather. Toes are short with short flesh-white nails.

Color: Black, blue, checkered-blue and spotted in the a.m. colors. The black is dark and the blue can have black or brown stripes across the wing.

With the spotted, white is the dominant color with some feathers decorated with black, blue or checker blue. It is considered a flaw if the spotted in his first year has some feathers completely black or blue. The dominant color may be grayish blue.

With every change of feathers, the feathers of the spotted become darker, so that after several years only traces of white remain. This is called “darkening of color”.

Flight: Easy, vibrant, attains height easily. Trained pigeons fly in group, but not in a very close formation.  During flight they tumble backwards individually 2-3 times or more. Tumbling is more frequent towards the end of the flight which may last several hours. Every other exhibition in the air is considered a flaw (i.e. “spiral”, “borer”).

Flaws:

Major flaws are: existence of oil gland, dark eyes, over-sized pupil, red and fat eyelids, square head, short or black beak, carriage of wings over the tail and feathered tarsi.

Note:  Sarajevo Roller Standard is authentic and as such accepted on September 25th, 1984. at Small Animal Breederd Association of Yugoslavia meeting, held in Doboj.  This english version is the translation of the original filed at that time with the European Association of Pigeon  Breeders. 

At European Association of Pigeon Breeders meeting held on May 28-31. 1987. in Aranđelovac, Yugoslavia, standard was accepted and addmited to the EE register (it can be found  under number 888). This is first Bosnian pigeon with the European pedegree.