'They sell on Vinted within a day': Shropshire woman's paintings by pet pigeons sell for £1,200

A woman has made £1,200 selling unique artwork on Vinted – painted by her pet pigeons.

Sophie James, 21, has been surrounded by racing pigeons her entire life as her family raise them.

She got the idea to explore their creative side after her friend Ella Woodland, 19, told her to give it a go - when her artwork painted by her rats took off.

Sophie bought paints and put it on her birds’ - Blizzard, Brock, Pip and Seagall - feet, encouraging them to walk over the mini canvases she bought on Amazon.

Read more: West Midlands student makes £3k selling art painted by rats for up to £50 a piece

The adult support worker began selling their work on Vinted in March 2025 – and now uploads up to five each week, flogging them for £8 each.

Her side hustle has allowed her to put some money into savings, though she admits most of it “goes towards the pigeons” to help pay for food and enter them into their next races.

Sophie, from Ellesmere, Shropshire, says: “I try and do it when they are babies so they get used to it and kind of grow it once they begin racing.

“Brock - he was 20 days old when I started it.

“It was just my friend with the rat paintings, she said ‘do it with the pigeons’ so I gave it a go.

“Last year I started selling the paintings.

“I think I started at £6 to see how it takes off and now it’s £8.

“I put five up last week on Vinted and they sold within a day.

“I try and do five at a time and space it out a bit.

“From March last year to now I've made roughly £1,200.

“Mainly it goes towards the pigeons for the corn and putting them into races basically."

Sophie sets up an area “wherever she can” at home for the pigeons to produce their work – and has since turned seven of them into mini artists.

She owns and races four different breeds of pigeon – grizzle, check pied, blue bar and mealy.

She said: “I get Brock or whichever pigeon it is for that day and hold them, put paint onto their feet, put them on the canvas and let them walk around basically.

“I keep switching out the colours and that’s it.

“My friends and family basically follow along with it.

“They’re asking me every time how it’s going.

“They’re like ‘you should have thought of this before'.

“I love it.

“I’ve done it with more than four pigeons but I can’t remember all their names.

“It connects me to them in a way.

“I’ve been getting messages from people to order more than one painting saying they love it, and saying they’re going to surprise people with them."

Sophie has no plans to stop her side hustle any time soon.

"I'm going to see how long it lasts and see how it goes," she says.

You can find Sophie’s creations on Vinted @s0ph.jam and on Instagram @pigeons_paint.