21 Amazing Facts You Didn't Know About
Pigeons
 How
old are pigeons?
Pigeons have lived alongside man for thousands of years with
the first images of pigeons being found by archaeologists in
Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and dating back to 3000 BC. It
was the Sumerians in Mesopotamia that first started to breed
white doves from the wild pigeon that we see in our towns
and cities today and this undoubtedly accounts for the
amazing variety of colors that are found in the average
flock of urban pigeons. To ancient peoples a white pigeon
would have seemed miraculous and this explains why the bird
was widely worshipped and considered to be sacred.
Throughout human history the pigeon has adopted many roles
ranging from symbols of gods and goddesses through to
sacrificial victims, messengers, pets, food and even war
heroes!
 Biblical
references
The first biblical reference to the pigeon (or dove) was in
the Old Testament of the Bible in the first millennium AC
and was the story of Noah and the dove of peace. Later, in
the New Testament, the pigeon was first mentioned during the
baptism of Christ where the dove descended as the Holy
Spirit, an image now used extensively in Christian art.
These early biblical references have paved the way for the
many different ways that the urban pigeon is viewed in
modern societies worldwide. Perception of the pigeon
through the centuries has changed from God to the devil and
from hero to zero!
 Pigeon
poop – foul or fantastic?
Although pigeon poo is seen as a major problem for property
owners in the 21st Century, it was considered to be an
invaluable resource in the 16th, 17th and 18th century in
Europe. Pigeon poop was a highly prized fertiliser and
considered to be far more potent than farmyard manure. So
prized in fact that armed guards were stationed at the
entrances to dovecotes (pigeon houses) to stop thieves
stealing it! Not only this, but in England in the 16th
century pigeon poop was the only known source of saltpetre,
an essential ingredient of gunpowder and was considered a
highly valued commodity as a result. In Iran, where eating
pigeon flesh was forbidden, dovecotes were set up and used
simply as a source of fertilizer for melon crops and in
France and Italy it was used to fertilize vineyards and hemp
crops.
 The
pigeon as a war hero
In modern times the feral pigeon has been used to great
effect during wartime. In both the first and second World
Wars the pigeon saved hundreds of thousands of human lives
by carrying messages across enemy lines. Pigeons were
carried on ships in convoys and in the event of a U-boat
attack a messenger pigeon was released with details of the
location of the sinking ship. In many cases this lead to the
survivors being rescued and lives saved. Mobile pigeon
lofts were set up behind the trenches in the First World War
from which pigeons often had to fly through enemy fire and
poison gas to get their messages home. The birds played a
vital role in intelligence gathering and were used
extensively behind enemy lines where the survival rate was
only 10%. In the Second World War pigeons were used less
due to advances in telecommunications, but the birds relayed
invaluable information back to the allies about the German
V1 and V2 Rocket sites on the other side of the Channel.
 The
pigeon as a messenger
The earliest large scale communication network using pigeons
as messengers was established in Syria and Persia about 5th
Century BC. Much later in the 12th Century AD the city of
Baghdad and all the main towns and cities in
Syria and Egypt were linked by messages carried by pigeons.
This was the sole source of communication. In Roman times
the pigeon was used to carry results of sporting events such
as the Olympic Games and this is why white doves are
released at the start of the Olympic Games today. In
England, prior to the days of telegraphs, pigeons were often
taken to soccer matches and released to carry home the
result of the game.
Their use as a messenger in war time resulted in many
pigeons being awarded honors by both the British and French
Governments. Incredibly, the last ‘pigeon post’ service was
abandoned in India in 2004 with the birds being retired to
live out the rest of their days in peace.
 The
religious significance of the pigeon
Many religious groups including Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs
feed pigeons for religious reasons. Many older Sikhs feed
pigeons ceremoniously to honour the high priest and warrior
Guru Govind Singh who was a known friend of the pigeon (or
rock dove). Some Sikhs also feed pigeons because they
believe that when they are reincarnated they will never go
hungry if they have fed pigeons in their previous life.
Other religious groups in India believe that when a person
dies his or her soul assumes the form of a bird (normally a
pigeon) and therefore by feeding birds they are caring for
the souls of their departed ancestors. The pigeon is
revered in India with huge flocks numbering many thousands
of birds being fed daily at Hindu temples in town and city
centres throughout the country. In both eastern and western
societies many of the most entrenched pigeon-related
problems in urban areas are considered to be caused,
certainly in part, by religious feeding of the birds. In
the Christian religion the pigeon is both a symbol of peace
and of the Holy Spirit.
Famous pigeons
During the First World War a pigeon named Cher Ami (Dear
friend) saved the lives of many French soldiers by carrying
a message across enemy lines in the heat of battle. Cher
Ami was shot in the chest and the leg, loosing most of the
leg to which the message was attached, but continued the 25
minute flight avoiding shrapnel and poison gas to get the
message home. Cher Ami was awarded the French ‘Croix
de Guerre’ for heroic service. Another
heroic pigeon named G.I. Joe saved the lives of a
thousand soldiers in World War 2 after British troops had
established a position within an Italian town that was due
to be bombed by allied planes. Communication equipment was
down and the only means of stopping the raid was to attach a
hastily written message to G.I. Joe and send him to the HQ.
G.I. Joe flew 20 miles in 20 minutes arriving at the air
base whilst the planes were taxiing on the runway. Disaster
was averted with 5 minutes to spare. G.I. Joe received the
‘Dickin’ medal for his bravery.
 ‘Rock
Dove’ or ‘pigeon’?
The feral pigeon that we see in our towns and cities
today is descended from the
Rock Dove (Columba livia), a cliff dwelling bird
historically found in coastal regions. The word ‘pigeon’ is
actually derived from the Latin word ‘pipio’ which meant
‘young bird’. The word then passed into Old French as
‘pijon’ and thus the English name ‘pigeon’ was derived and
is now used the world over as a common name for the Rock
Dove. Other common names include ‘domestic pigeon’ and the
‘feral pigeon’. In 2004 British and American Ornithologists
officially re-named the bird the Rock Pigeon.
 Why
do pigeons bob their heads?
The pigeon has side mounted eyes unlike humans
and owls which have forward facing eyes. As a pigeons have
monocular vision rather than binocular vision
they bob their heads for depth of perception. The
pigeon’s eyes work much better with stationary images and
therefore, as the pigeon takes a step forward the head is
temporarily left behind. The next step jerks the head
forward again and so on. This allows the bird to correctly
orient itself.
 Pigeon-gram
Air Mail service
The first organised pigeon air-mail service was started in
1896 between New Zealand and the Great Barrier Reef.
The sinking of the SS Wairarapa off the Great Barrier Reef,
with the loss of 134 lives, was a catalyst for the service.
News of the disaster did not reach New Zealand for 3-days
and as a direct result a
pigeon-gram service was set up between the two islands.
The first message was carried in January 1896 and took less
than 1.75 hours to reach Aukland. Up to 5 messages were
carried by each pigeon with the record time for the journey
being held by a pigeon called ‘Velocity’ taking only 50
minutes and averaging 125 kmph (only 40% slower than a
modern aircraft!). Special pigeon-gram stamps were issued
costing 2/- each (20 cents) with the fee being paid in cash
before the pigeon was released.
 Pigeons
in Wall Street
One of the richest and most famous families in the world
amassed its wealth, certainly in part, as a result of
exploiting the pigeon. In the early 1800’s the Rothschild
family set up a network of pigeon lofts throughout Europe
and used homing pigeons to carry information between its
financial houses. This method proved to be quicker and more
efficient than any other means of communication available at
the time. The speed of the service combined with the
ability to send and receive information ahead of the
competition helped the Rothschild family amass a fortune
which still exists today.
 Mating
habits of the pigeon
The feral pigeon mates for life and can breed up
to 8 times a year in optimum conditions, bringing two young
into the world each time. The frequency of breeding is
dictated by the abundance of food. The eggs take 18/19 days
to hatch with both parents incubating the eggs. Young
dependant pigeons are commonly known as ‘squabs’. Both
parents feed the young with a special ‘pigeon milk’ that is
regurgitated and fed to the squabs. Each squab can double
its birth weight in one day but it takes 4 days for the eyes
to open. When squabs are hungry they ‘squeak’ whilst
flapping their wings and as a result they are also commonly
known as ‘squeakers’. At approximately 2 months of age the
young are ready to fledge and leave the nest. This much
longer than average time spent in the nest ensures that life
expectancy of a juvenile pigeon is far greater than that of
other fledglings.
 Pigeons
are big business
We normally think of the pigeon as being an
unwelcome guest in our towns and cities but most of us are
unaware that racing pigeons can be worth huge sums of
money. One racing pigeon recently sold for a staggering
$132,517.00! The 3-year old bird was a champion racer
beating 21,000 other pigeons in one long distance race. For
this reason he was bought by one British company that breeds
racing pigeons for ‘stud’. One very happy pigeon! The
previous record price for a pigeon was $73, 800.00.
 How
do pigeons navigate?
There are many theories about how pigeons manage
to return ‘home’ when released 100’s of miles from their
loft. A champion racing pigeon can be released 400-600
miles away from its home and still return within the day.
This amazing feat does not just apply to ‘racing’ or
‘homing’ pigeons, all pigeons have the ability to return to
their roost. A 10-year study carried out by Oxford
University concluded that
pigeons use roads and freeways to navigate, in some
cases even changing direction at freeway junctions. Other
theories include
navigation by use of the earth’s magnetic field, visual
clues such as landmarks, the sun and even infrasounds (low
frequency seismic waves). Whatever the truth, this unique
ability makes the pigeon a very special bird.
 Famous
people and pigeons
The humble pigeon has attracted some
very famous fans over the last few thousand years
ranging from Royalty to rock and roll singers and actors
through to fashion designers. One of the most famous royals
is Queen Elizabeth of England who has lofts and pigeon
keepers at her estate in Sandringham, Norfolk. Elvis
Presley had a soft spot for pigeons and Mike Tyson is also
an enthusiastic pigeon keeper. Even Maurizzo Gucci the
internationally renowned fashion designer is a keen pigeon
fancier spending a reputed $10,000 on one American pigeon.
'One famous couple, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, are
keen pigeon fanciers but after being swamped by autograph
hunters at a pigeon show they are apparently less
comfortable to show their affection for the birds
publicly.' Last but not least, and probably the most famous
of all... Noah!
 Pigeon
disasters
Probably the greatest disaster to befall the
species was the extermination of the passenger pigeon in
North America in the early part of the 20th century. It is
estimated that there were 3-5 billion passenger pigeons in
North America at the time. Flocks of 100,000’s of the birds
would blacken the skies as they flew over but early settlers
managed to wipe out every last bird by 1914 through
over-hunting. A more recent,
and quite bizarre disaster, befell tens of thousands of
racing pigeons released from Nantes in France as part of a
race held to celebrate the centenary of the Royal Racing
Pigeon Association in England. 60,000 pigeons were released
but only a few birds ever arrived back at their lofts
throughout southern England. One theory suggests that the
sonic boom created by Concorde as it flew over the English
Channel, at the precise time the pigeons would have been at
the same point, completely disorientated the birds,
compromising their inbuilt navigation system.
 Pigeons
as lifesavers
Although pigeons are one of the most intelligent
of all the bird species man has found limited uses for the
birds other than for the purposes of sport, food and as a
message carrier. A team of navy researchers, however, has
found that pigeons can be trained to save human lives at sea
with high success rates. Project Sea Hunt has trained a
number of pigeons to identify red or yellow life jackets
when floating in the water. The pigeons were not only found
to be more reliable than humans but they were also many
times quicker than humans when it came to spotting survivors
from a capsized or sinking boat.
The pigeon can see color in the same way that humans do
but they can also see ultra-violet, a part of the spectrum
that humans cannot see, and this is one of the reasons they
are so well adapted to lifesaving.
 Pigeons
in the news
One of the world’s most famous news agencies,
Reuters, started its European business by using trained
homing pigeons. The service was started in 1850 with 45
pigeons carrying the latest news and stock prices from
Aachen in Germany to Brussels in Belgium. Although a
telegraph service between the two countries existed,
numerous gaps in the transmission lines made communication
difficult and slow. The birds travelled the 76 miles in a
record-breaking two hours beating the railway by four hours.
 Why
do you never see a baby pigeon?
Most small birds rear and fledge their young in
2/3 weeks with young birds sometimes leaving the nest after
only 10 days of life, but
pigeons are different, their young remain in the nest
for up to 2 months before fledging. This gives the young
pigeon an advantage over many other species of bird. It
leaves the nest as a relatively mature juvenile, allowing
the bird to cope better in the first few days of its life, a
dangerous time for all youngsters. Juveniles can be told
apart from adults but it takes an experienced eye. A
juvenile’s beak often appears to be far too long for the
size of its body and the cere (the fleshy area at the top of
the beak) is white in adults and greyish pink in juveniles.
 What
is the natural predator of the pigeon?
Although the natural enemy of the feral pigeon
is now man, with millions of pigeons being killed in control
operations the world over, it is the
peregrine falcon that is the pigeons’ real natural
predator. Although a shy and retiring bird that has its
natural habitat along rocky coastlines, the peregrine is now
being introduced into towns and cities as a ‘natural’ pigeon
control. The peregrine is the fastest bird on the planet
when in a dive and can achieve speeds in excess of 200 mph,
over 130 mph faster than a pigeon.
 Are
pigeons intelligent?
Pigeons are considered to be
one of the most intelligent birds on the planet with
pigeons being able to undertake tasks previously thought to
be the sole preserve of humans and primates. The pigeon has
also been found to pass the ‘mirror test’ (being able to
recognise its reflection in a mirror) and is one of only 6
species, and the only non-mammal, that has this ability.
The pigeon can also recognise all 26 letters of the English
language as well as being able to conceptualise. In
scientific tests pigeons have been found to be able to
differentiate between photographs and even differentiate
between two different human beings in a photograph when
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