Barumbara

Photo :Arnold Sciberras

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Wild pigeons had been living in Malta thousand.s of years before the first inhabitants arrived on rafts or canoes from Sicily. They live on cliff ledges and in holes in cliff walls, as well as in man-made buildings – a characteristic which led to them being domesticated.

Farmers used to build ledges and holes in the walls of their farmhouses to be taken up by the domestic pigeons, which were induced to stay around the farmhouse by being fed on grains and other seeds.

A pigeon loft is known in Maltese as barumbara, which is probably derived from the Sicilian word palummara - a place where pigeons live and breed. Each old Maltese farmhouse used to have a barumbara in one of its walls. There are also several areas in Malta known as Il-barumbara, indicating that there must have been ancient pi­geon-lofts in the vicinity. it is believed by the athour that the Maltese runt originated from breeding in these structures faunamelitensis.deviantart.com…