Philip Carbonaro stared in awe this morning, as his golden eye pigeon, which had been lost since February returned to Malta from Greece.

Philip had lost his pigeon in February 2015 on its first race from Belvedere in Sicily, which is 155km away from Malta.

Just over a month later, he received a call from an English speaking foreigner, Irene, who told him she wanted to report a lost pigeon which was found in Greece. He started to take down details, before shortly realizing it was his pigeon she was speaking about.

Through Facebook, Philip got in touch with Dritan Kashar, a resident of the Greek island Kefalonia, who was keeping the pigeon at his house. Dritan was willing to send the pigeon back, however Peter decided it first needed time to recover from its long flight.

On Monday morning, Dritan sent loose Golden Eyes, informing Peter that “it did two high laps and flew away in the direction of Malta”.

“All day I was impatient, anticipating and thinking whether 'Golden Eyes' would make it back home safely. I hoped and checked my loft till late in the evening but she wasn’t back. Only this morning I went up again to the loft to check again and to my greatest surprise and happiness 'Golden Eyes' was there sitting on a perch as fresh as flower. I took her in my hands starry-eyed. I repeated to myself in awe and disbelief ‘She’s back, She’s back, She’s back!’

"I had tears up in my eyes, my feelings couldn’t be held and I went through a moving experience which I cannot quiet explain. It was one of my happiest moments, I was awe struck and so emotionally moved by its return. I held her close  to me and wanted to show her my appreciation that she made it home by giving her a kiss and let her go back in the loft,” Peter said, in comments to The Malta Independent.

Golden Eyes travelled a solo flight of 630km, a straight flight over the large stretch of the Mediterranean Sea from Greece to Malta.

“One should never underestimate the power of a pigeon to finds its way back home," Philip concluded.