Pigeon Facts
5 Amazing Pigeon Facts:
The homing pigeons are domesticated Rock Pigeons (Columba livia) that have been selectively bred to be able to find their way home over extremely long distances. As pigeons generally return to their own home lofts, they were easy to train by taking advantage of their impressive homing abilities. Those birds that repeatedly found their way home over long distances were placed into selective breeding programs to further enhance this ability in their offspring. Throughout history, these birds have been used to carry messages written on thin light paper (such as cigarette paper) in a small tube attached to one leg; this is called pigeon post; because of this function, they are often referred to as "carrier pigeon". They are directly decended from the carrier pigeon, but are now an entirely different breed. Flights as long as 1689 miles have been recorded by exceptional birds in competition pigeon racing. Their average flying speed over moderate distances is around 30 miles (48 km) per hour, but they can achieve bursts of speed up to 60 mph (100 km/hr). Read more at Beautyofbirds.com IN WAR Homing pigeons have long played an important role in war. Due to their homing ability, speed and altitude, they were often used as military messengers. Carrier pigeons of the Racing Homer breed were used to carry messages in World War I and World War II, and 32 such pigeons were presented with the Dickin Medal. Read more about this at Wikipedia.org. |
