VIDALIA — Modi Mascagni handles a lot of chicken as co-owner of Lil Dago’s Family Italian Restaurant in Natchez.

But at home he deals with a different sort of bird — homing pigeons.

Mascagni races young and old pigeons in the Queen City Racing Pigeon Club out of Jackson and the Southern Skies Club of Sumrall.

“I’m raising a young bird team of about 35 birds, and in my old bird team I’ve got about 20 old birds I’m going to race this year,” Mascagni said. “They’re athletes is what they are.”

Although he has not competed in any races since he got back into the sport a year ago, Mascagni is looking forward to his first race Feb. 28.

Mascagni will bring his birds to Jackson to meet up with other clubs in the area, and a transporter will take all the birds to a release point in Illinois about 500 miles away from his home in Vidalia.

The pigeons will be released and will head directly for the loft behind Mascagni’s house.

They can usually make it in one day, and they’re timed using an electronic clock and a sensor in their identification bands, which are strapped on their leg at seven days old.

“I’ll ship the sexes in different races,” Mascagni said. “The hens will get released first, and they’re going to race home to get to the nest. The cocks will go in the second race, and they’re going to race home to get to the hen. You motivate them — it’s something to race home to.”

The racing pigeons are fed antibiotics and probiotics and also get a different diet from the rest of his birds.

Mascagni has been training the birds every morning by loading them up and taking them to different locations up to 100 miles away from home.

He sets them free and they fly home using their sense of smell and hearing as well as a general good sense of direction.

Scientists have found that homing pigeons have organs at the base of their beaks that map changes in the earth’s magnetic field.

But according to a CNN story from 2004, homing pigeons actually follow landmarks and roadways just like humans.

“The best race I ever flew in, I was living in Baton Rouge and we flew out of Illinois,” Mascagni said. “When your bird gets tossed up, he may not come home for a week. But I had two birds travel 500 miles in a day, and they were home before dark.”

Mascgani also owns tipplers, a different type of pigeon bred for endurance and known for flying high into the sky.

He got into those and joined the Canadian National Tippler Union when he moved back to Natchez and could not find a homing pigeon club.

“(The tipplers) look like dots up there — they’ll fly all day long. If I ever wanted to go for an official fly, I have a pigeon buddy in New Orleans who comes up to witness the fly.

“The world record is 22 hours, 5 minutes, and they’ll fly into the dark.”

Mascagni said he does not even have to be home for the birds to return from their flight.

Their loft, or cage, has a back door with a funnel that the birds fly into, but it will not let them come back out.

So he sets food in the loft and goes to work. The electronic clock records their time.

The races are scored on the speed of the birds’ flight in yards per second.

It is calculated using the distance from the launching point to a pigeon’s home and the elapsed time from launch to landing.

Mascagni first started collecting homing pigeons when he was in his 20s as a suggestion from his dad. The two, he said, never have anything in common because he has never been into contact sports, but his father had raised pigeons as a kid.

“I can do it in my backyard,” he said. “I come out here right at daylight and feed them and I come home after work and give them a little food.

“My family thinks it’s crazy, but I’ve just always enjoyed birds. I’m a sea-kayaker also, and I’ve always said the kayakers are all a bunch of loners. I love getting off by myself. This allows me to do that.”

Mascagni said he relates to the birds in a way.

All they want to do is get back home to what is familiar to them.

“I hate to be away from home,” he said. “If I’m on vacation, after three or four days, I’m ready to come back.”

Mascagni said he has no clue exactly how many birds he owns, but his favorite by far are the racers.

“To me, sending that bird out there 300-400 miles after you’ve got him trained right and fed and medicated right, and to sit out here in a lawn chair and see that shadow come over the yard, you know you’ve got yourself a good race bird.”