The Topic Search is the most important feature on Roller-Pigeon.Com. By taking just a little time to understand how to run a search, you can filter through the thousands of posts to find the exact subjects you want to read about. For example: The easiest search method but least reliable is to type in phrases like: 

comp flying 

This search pulls up 272 results

competition flying

This search pulls up 426 results

To filter through these results use the “Refine Search” button. It will take your initial search and dig deeper within them. Continue to use the “Refine Search” button for each successive search word until you have filtered out all the “noise” and have just the precise results you were looking for. It takes some practice to get used to, but once you have the hang of it, there is practically nothing you cannot find on the Birmingham Roller! 

Here are some other powerful techniques to filter through the thousands of posts to find what you are looking for.

Lets say we want to research how to feed kit birds for competition. Basically, we have 4 ways to look up this topic, each search parameter, pulls up a different result. For example, If we start like this: 

Feeding for competition   This plain search pulls up 197 results. If we use quote marks like this: 

“feeding for competition”   This search pulls up 1 result. If we use square brackets like this: 

[feeding for competition]  This search pulls up 2 results. If we use braces like this: 

{feeding for competition} This search pulls up 6 results. 

Buy using these simple search parameters, you can drill down and filter through over 113,000 posts and web articles to find whatever you want to know on the Birmingham Roller Pigeon. It takes a little practice to get used to but give it a try. Below are even more search methods for the hard core students amongst us. ENJOY!

By default the search engine tries to locate pages which have exact matches for all of the words entered in your search query. If that fails, it then tries to locate pages which contain any words in your search query. If that happens a short message is displayed at the top of the search results indicating this has been done.

In addition, there are several ways to modify the default search behavior.

1. phrase search
   The search engine supports three types of phrase search.
   • To match an exact phrase, use quotes around the phrase
     Example: "feeding for competition"
   • To match a near (within a couple of words) phrase, use square brackets [around the words]
     Example: [feeding for competition]
   • To match a far (within several words) phrase, use braces { around the words }
     Example: {feeding for competition}
2. + and - qualifiers
   If you prepend a word with + that word is required to be on the page.
   If you prepend a word with - that word is required to not be on the page.
   Example: +always -never
3. * wildcard
   If a query word ends with a * all words on a page which start the same way as that query word will match.
   Example: gift*
4. ? wildcard
   If a query word contains a ? any character will match that position.
   Example: b?g
5. boolean search
   You can use the following boolean operators in your search: AND, OR, NOT. These operators MUST be in capital letters.
   Example: (contact AND us) OR (about AND us)

All of these techniques can be combined: +alway* -ne??r*