Roll Illusion

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1/13/13

All rolling is an illusion. It happens, but what we perceive when we watch a pigeon roll is an illusion, because the eye and the mind can't discern all the details. That's one reason that rolling pigeons always look slower on video than they do when viewed in real time, real life, with the naked eye. Slow down the rolling on a video, and even really fast, smooth, tight spinning will begin to appear loose or sloppy. And on slow motion video, the rolling that we normally perceive to be loose-sloppy can appear hopelessly ridiculous.

Some illusions for your consideration:

1. Dark check (Pensom called them "black check," homer men call them "velvet") self rollers look tighter and faster when viewed against a deep blue sky than do white-winged birds that are rolling equally tight and fast.

2. White selfs and light grizzles viewed against a cloudy, whitish sky look tighter and faster than when viewed against a blue sky. I once had a deep-rolling (40-50') white self Pensom cock that looked fabulous when rolling against a cloudy sky. When viewed against a deep blue sky, I could see him switch wings once, sometimes twice on his way down.

3. Badges and other white winged rollers look give the illusion of rolling faster and tighter when viewed against a cloudy sky than against an azure sky. There's a reason that light-marked birds are more commonly stocked in the cloudy UK and dark check selfs are more commonly stocked in sunny Southern California.

4. Bear in mind that flight feathers are more closed when the wing is beating downward and the flights "open up" when the wing is raised. When the wing is raised upward (between each downward wing beat), air easily passes through "ventilation gaps" both between the flights themselves and between the feather barbules on the flights. When revolving at a high rps, many mealy (ash-red bar) and lavender (spread ash-red) selfs give the appearance that the flight feathers, especially the tips of the outer flights, "disappear." Many judges fall prey to this illusion, saying that they are rolling "H-wing" when they are really rolling high-X, but with commendable velocity. Similarly, blue check and blue bar self rollers with lighter blue, "slatey-colored" under wings sometimes create the illusion of faster spinning than those with darker-colored under wings. I've seen some kits with several such blue checks with light-colored under wings. On a break, they can give a strobe-light effect. It's an illusion, but an impressive one.

5. My friend Jay Starley and I have marveled at times how certain judges seem unable to estimate depth by duration of roll. When viewed from the side, at a more horizontal angle, a judge may call a break when the birds are rolling 20'. A minute later, when the same birds break with 2-second spins directly overhead, the judge may decline to call a break because he thinks the birds are rolling less than 10'. We've witnessed this even when the birds roll 3 seconds and low enough that you can hear the sound of their rolling--you could almost judge their depth with your ears.

6. Some axle-wing rollers roll fast. When viewed from the side, these can give the illusion that they are rolling tightly. When viewed from below, they no longer impress.

7. 20-foot spinners can look really nice when the kit is flying at 100-150 feet from the ground. When the kit is flying at 1,000 feet, they give the illusion of short, 5' spinning.

8. Slow-revolving, 40-foot rolling looks unimpressive when the kit is flying at 150-200 feet. The higher the kit rises, the better this rolling appears.

9. At competitions, have you noticed how novices (like we all were at one time) will "ooh and aah" at slow, deeper rolling, but when the same guys have been in the hobby five years, their eyesight sharpens?

10. Do pigeons really close up to a donut shape when rolling? No. The donut illusion is created by certain physical features combined with rotation fast enough to overcome the rolling U-shape that you see in some slower-revolving rollers.

11. Fifty years ago, it was much more common to see birds rolling with the hole visible from the side. The rollers then revolved just as fast, but they were larger, with longer necks, longer backs, and slightly longer tails. These physical features help create the illusion of the hole in the middle of the revolving pigeon. Today, many more North American rollers are short and cobby, with short necks, short tails, and short-coupled bodies. When rolling, they give the illusion that the hole has "closed up," as some like to say. They haven't closed up--they're too compact to create the illusion.

12. Take two pigeons revolving at 10 rps; one is a 12-oz. bird, the other a 7-oz. bird, all other things being equal. To the naked eye, the smaller pigeon will always give the illusion of rolling at higher rps. The smaller the pigeon, the faster it will appear to roll, regardless of the actual rps.

13. Ever notice how some rolling birds appear to descend at an angle when rolling in a wind gust? Some winds rise up (and push up) when meeting an object, such as a hill or a broad building. A bird rolling over this upward air current will appear to descend more slowly than when rolling in calm weather.

14. When viewing rollers performing on a break, most experienced roller men will find their eyes automatically scanning the break to single out the fastest-spinning birds. When judging a competition, we strive consciously to overcome this tendency, and force our eyes and minds to scan the break to discern the number of birds on the break and the average velocity and depth of the birds rolling on the break. This is one reason that, when judging a competition, I dislike being asked to select or give an award to the fastest spinner in a competition.

15. When rolling, some pigeons descend more rapidly than others. Some appear to be propelling themselves downward, so that they descend faster and deeper than other birds that descend more slowly while revolving faster. I have not formed a definite opinion about why this occurs, but I believe there is something about the angle of the wing-beat that propels these birds downward more rapidly than others. I suppose their wing-beats may be synchronized so that more of their down-beats occur when the wings are thrust upward toward the sky. In a family of fast-descending rollers, we may expect to find a greater percentage of bumpers and rolldowns.

16. If the illusion described in the foregoing paragraph really occurs, it is logical that the opposite occurs. That is, other performers may beat their wings while rolling in such a fashion that they descend less rapidly. Perhaps their wing-beats are synchronized so that the down-beats occur while the wings are thrust downward toward the earth, so that they slow-down their descent. It is true that some Persian tumblers roll upward.

17. Personally, I've witnessed a few birds that appeared to "hang" while rolling so that they do not descend nearly as far as other birds rolling in a break. It happens so quickly that I've never tried counting the number of seconds that they "hang," but it's probably only about a second and a half. I once had a yearling red check badge cock that did this when he came into his roll. When rolled/spun in a break, it was easy to miss seeing him perform, because the other rolling birds dropped below the kit while he appeared to remain with the non-rolling birds in the kit. Remember that the birds in your kit are not flying at equal altitude when flying in even a tight kit. The distance from the top bird in the kit and the bottom bird may be 10-15' in a 25-bird kit, and 10-15' between the front birds and the back birds of the kit. When I forced myself to observe this bird intently, when he was the only bird performing in the kit, I found that he rose up to the top front of the kit and dropped maybe 10' in maybe 2 seconds, popping out of his spin when he was barely below the bottom birds at the back of the kit. The illusion was that he had not dropped at all, but had been spinning without dropping.

Tom Monson (edited).