Atop his humble wooden pigeon coop overlooking the majestic Giza pyramids in Egypt, Omar Gamal and his older brother keep about 40 pigeons on the roof of their family building in Nazlet Al-Samman, in western Cairo. Handed down through the generations, the practise of domesticating pigeons stretches across borders from the banks of the Nile to north Africa and beyond, with people not only training birds for competitions, but also serving them up as a dining delicacy.
