Berne Gugger
The Berne Gugger is a Swiss fancy pigeon breed from the Bern area, descended like all domestic pigeons from the rock pigeon, Columba livia. It belongs with the Bernese color pigeons, a group selected for neat type and carefully fixed markings rather than racing or meat production. The word Gugger is usually kept in breed names rather than translated, and fanciers use it for this local Bernese variety. Birds are typically clean-legged, medium-small, alert, and judged on body balance, carriage, feather condition, and the exactness of the breed's color pattern, which may appear in several base colors.
In the loft, Berne Guggers are managed much like other exhibition pigeons: dry housing, steady pair records, mineral grit, bathing water, and protection from rodents and hawks matter more than elaborate equipment. Breeders usually pair for both type and markings because small faults in boundary, beak color, eye cere, or feather quality can carry through a family. They can rear their own young when kept in calm, uncrowded pens, but rare lines benefit from exchanges among specialty clubs so the variety does not narrow around a few show winners.
Colors: Almond, Ash Red, Bar, Barless, Black, Blue, Brown, Checker, Dilute, Dun, Grizzle, Indigo, Mottle, Opal, Pied, Recessive Red, Red, Silver, Splash, Spread, White, Yellow
