AMHERST – For centuries, doves have been a sign of serenity, purity and freedom of the soul.

The Bible even uses doves to represent the Holy Spirit.

Angels Above, a new business run by Robin Zurcher of Amherst, offers clients a unique way to commemorate life’s most meaningful events.

The business, started earlier this month, allows clients to arrange for a display of white doves at their event, which so far have been mainly weddings and funerals.

“It’s really beautiful to see the doves during the funeral ceremony,” Zurcher said. “We release two doves, which circle above those in attendance. After the initial two are released, a loved one will release a third dove, which joins the others in the air. They will then circle above the cemetery together.”

The birds – trained to return back to their home at the Zurcher’s residence on Peasley Road in Brownhelm Township –  are White Rock doves, a special variety that are bred to be able to return home from up to 700 miles away. They come from the same family as the courier pigeon, a bird that was used to carry paper messages to a location within a radius of several hundred miles.

Zurcher began raising the birds many years ago when she received them from her brother-in-law.

“I was a 4-H adviser for a long time,” Zurcher said. “We raised the birds for the club.”

Unlike many varieties of birds, the White Rocks mate for life.

“The mother and father each take care of the babies, and there are usually two per nest,” Zurcher said. “Many times, in fact, the father plays a bigger role in the raising of the young than the mother does.”

Young doves are capable of taking trips much like the older ones, but at lesser distances.

“The younger birds can typically navigate within 300 miles,” Zurcher said. “We really like to keep our doves in a 50-mile or so distance because, on rare occasion, there are birds that don’t return home. We don’t like it when that happens, because they don’t really know how to survive in the wild very well.”

Anyone interested in learning more about the doves can log on to www.angelsabove.net.

Contact LeeAnn Mullen at 329-7155 or metro@chroniclet.com.

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