Homing instincts in feral pigeons

[photokev]

I have to confess a total ignorance of all things pigeons and really appreciate this board and all the help I've gotten!

When Homie takes flight out the window each day I realize that given she's a wild bird, she might not come back. (All though I have to confess I hope she always does!) Anyway, there's a tremendous wow factor when she does her laps around the building. She's basically a white bird with wings that look like they were splotched with a light mocha. From the bottom she looks like a white bird and when she's at full speed is just a white blur...

So my question is, can all pigeons be trained to race/home?

[zoo keeper]

I dont know that I have ever seen a feral pigeon that color. Beautiful bird

[pdpbison]

Hi Photokev,



As far as I know, if their health is withstanding, any Pigeon who feels themselves to have reason, can come back to what they feel is "home" from having been loosed almost anywhere in the world.

The first ( and only ) time I released a dozen or so youngsters in a nice place on the other side of town ( youngsters I had raised from orphan ferals) they all got back before I did, looking like they never left. Soon, most of them left anyway, assimilating into the wild flock I fed every day in the back yard, anyway, but for the time being, they did indeed think of that little house as their 'home' and made a bee-line for it from 20 miles away and got back fast, too...lol...

I have never sought to train any 'homers', but as far as I know, even though some are called Homers, any of them may be if they so decide. It is a navigation ability they all have.

And, in fact, as in Military 'Carrier-Homers' for messages, those Birds had to 'return' to a mobile Horse Drawn or self propelled Loft which sometimes was hundreds of ,miles away from where it had been the last time they had seen it, before being released somewhere far away to return to it.

And, I gather, that when released, they tended to go toward it right from the get-go, rather than going toward where it had been...

An amazing ability...


Phil
Las Vegas

[photokev]

her mother is even more striking. I went back to the marina where I rescued homie and I saw the pair. The dad was the typical slate black but the mom was almost blond...