How do racing pigeons find their way home? No one knows for sure. Research at Cornell and the University of Pittsburgh indicate that pigeons may have multiple facilities allowing them to determine the correct direction of home. There is little doubt that the sun is the primary orientation clue used by homing pigeons, but there have been experiments which have developed night flying pigeons, thus showing that the sun is not the only available orientation reference. Some scientists believe that pigeons also perceive the earth's magnetic field and utilize it for finding their way home. Other scientists have opined that pigeons may orient through a sense of smell or even low frequency sound via their hearing. Research is still going on at several universities trying to learn the secret of this bird's ability to navigate distances of 1,000 miles or more to return to its owner's backyard loft. But as far as breeders are concerned, the only way to discover if a bird possesses the required homing instinct, as well as athletic ability to do so quickly, is to race them.
* http://members.aol.com/rpdmag/racingpigeondigest/pgnintro.htmthey have there own little way of navigating around they no by remembering what certain places look like and so they know there way back its like thy have there own sat nav in there heads
The homing pigeon is a variety of domestic pigeon derived from the Rock Pigeon selectively bred to find its way home over long distance
no way no way
Well, first it only works one way. They will only come back to you, not go somewhere. After the pigeon has spent a couple of months in it's cage, it regards it as it's "home". Then, you take it somewhere and using internal navigation, it will find it's way back home.
You don't really. The way that works is that pigeons have a strong homing instinct. You can send one of your pigeons out with someone who's setting out to do some travelling. Then the traveller can attach a small capsule with a little note in it to the pigeons leg and release it. The pigeons flies back home, you retrieve the message and can read what the traveller wrote.
Magnetic navigation -- Like a compass, pigeons detect lines in the Earth's magnetic field.Astronomical navigation -- Like early explorers, pigeons use the position of the sun and stars to plot their course.Smell and or hearing -- Every place has its own unique sounds and smells, and the plucky birds are able to detect their home turf by using high-powered senses over great distances.
Artificial selection (or selective breeding) describes intentional breeding for certain traits, or combination of traits. The way to breed pigeons with large beaks is to find pigeons with large beaks of both sexes and mate them and then not allow breeding for pigeons without large beaks. You may also be able to genetically engineer pigeons so that they have large beaks.
Carrier pigeons are not trained to fly to someplace, but rather back to a place, specifically their home bases. This is why they are also called homing pigeons.By taking pigeons to various other locations, they could be released there and would instinctively fly home.
Can't Find My Way Home was created in 1989.
Peregrine Falcons are the most threat for your pigeons. It's up to your pigeons to master the defense against them.
The coo to each other in a soft sweet way.
Pigeons are monumentally important to the future of the world! They are the beacons of hope shining into a thousand universes, acting as the protector of every living species and the guardians of honour, hope, and all that is approximately ten centimetres high and feathery! Can I haz cheezburger nau?
Find Your Own Way Home was created on 2007-04-03.