How do homing pigeons work?

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

Local to its home, they use landmarks that they remember, over long distances they navigate by using the sun, or stars if they are flying at night. They also have a tiny magnet in their heads that acts as a compass and also enables them to "read" the earth's magnetic field, which is far from uniform.

Answer 3

A homing pigeon can find its way back to the nest because it uses sound waves to navigate. The longest distance every traveled was 1,800 miles and the fastest pigeon's flight was recorded at 90 miles per hour. Average speed is about 50 miles per hour.

Answer 4

When pigeons are a few months old, they imprint their location in their brain as "home" and will always return there. People researching this ability has come up with different theories. But there is no true scientific proof of those theories.

Answer 5

Magnetic fields for long range navigation over for instance open waters, or ground features in other cases.

Answer 6

When you contact a fancier, you will get a true racing pigeon.

Answer 7

Actually 60 mph is a good speed but a new blood line in Puerto Rico has a record of 80 mph.

Answer 8

After a while you could know the difference by looking at them.

Answer 9

Pigeons find their way home by radar.