The Uzbek Crack Tumbler is a unique group of breeds having very distinctive features such as the size of beak, presence of crests and muffs, and colors within the group. In Russia, these breeds were referred to as Uzbekistanian Crack Tumblers. However, in Uzbekistan, natives identified each breed according to the breed’s color, locality, and physical appearance. For example, Andijan pigeons that are muffed and spade shape crested were originally bred in the city of Andijan and therefore received their breeds name based on the locality. There are breeds of Uzbek Crack Tumblers that are plain headed, back crested, double crested, and front crested. The shape of crests can vary from breed to breed. There are approximately 80 different colors of Uzbek Crack Tumblers.
The Uzbek Crack Tumblers are great performers that include high flying and tumbling varieties. The name of the breed comes from the unique flight characteristic known as “crack tumbling”. In flight, Uzbek Crack Tumblers interrupt their horizontal flight and while standing like a column in the air, they begin to rise up vertically while tumbling and clapping their wings together making a sharp clap or crack like sound that can be heard from a distance. These vertical column flights can reach a height of 10 meters and can be repeated several times during the flight. With a regular training, these birds can stay up in flight for up to 8 hours. In Uzbekistan, these pigeons are called “playing pigeons” and are highly valued. In the past, Uzbek natives organized regular flight demonstrations. Recently, there has been decline in the flight demonstrations as many breeders began to focus on show qualities of these birds.
Many of the Uzbek Crack Tumblers breeds originated in Uzbekistan, city of Bukhara. The Emirs of Bukhara brought several different breeds of pigeons from Persia to their lofts. For many years, they cross bred these pigeons with the local Bukharin breeds resulting in a great variety of new double crested and long muffed breeds. For over three centuries, breeders in Samarkhand, Tashkent, Namangan, Fargona Valley, and various other regions of Uzbekistan acquired these breeds from the Emirs of Bukhara and continued to breed these birds. Following the World War II, many of these breeds disappeared. In the late 1960, these breeds began to reappear in the private lofts of Uzbek fanciers. By 1990, several clubs of Uzbek Crack Tumblers were established. Now, the Uzbek Crack Tumblers are very popular breeds in Russia and Europe.
The Uzbek Crack Tumbler breeds have various colors and markings. In the Uzbek language, there is a corresponding name for each of these colors and markings including: