A two-day old pigeon is held in a coop in Lahore on Oct. 24. It is estimated that there are over 300,000 pigeon fanciers in Lahore, which has a population of almost 10 million people.

Pigeons sit on their coop.

Pigeon keeping in Pakistan dates back to the Mughal period (from 1526 to the the mid-19th century) in Asia when pigeons were used to carry love messages into harems or secret military instructions to warriors in the field.