The homing pigeon is a variety of domestic pigeon (Columba livia domestica), selectively bred for its ability to find its way home over extremely long distances. Because of this skill, homing pigeons were used to carry messages, a practice referred to as "pigeon post." Until the introduction of telephones, they were used commercially to deliver communication; when used during wars, they were called "war pigeons." The homing pigeon is also called a mail pigeon or messenger, and colloquially a homer. Perhaps most commonly, the homing pigeon is called a carrier pigeon; this nomenclature can be confusing, though, since it is distinct from the English carrier, an ancient breed of fancy pigeon. Modern-day homing pigeons do have English carrier blood in them because they are in part descendants of the old-style carriers. The domestic pigeon is derived from the wild rock dove (Columba livia sspp.); the rock dove has an innate homing ability, meaning that it will generally return to its nest using magnetoreception. Flights as long as 1,800 km (1,100 miles) have been recorded by birds in competitive homing pigeon racing; birds bred for this are colloquially called racing homers. Homing pigeons' average flying speed over moderate 965 km (600 miles) distances is around 97 km/h (60 miles per hour) and speeds of up to 160 km/h (100 miles per hour) have been observed in top racers for short distances.
History
Evidence exists suggesting that homing pigeons were used for pigeon post in Ancient Egypt by 1350 BCE. Messages were tied around the legs of the pigeon, which was freed and could reach its original nest. Pliny the Elder described pigeons used in a similar fashion as military messengers around the first century CE. By the 19th century homing pigeons were used extensively for military communications. The use of flying messenger pigeons was well-established as early as 3000 years ago. They were used to proclaim the winner of the Ancient Olympics. Messenger pigeons were used as early as 1150 in Baghdad and also later by Genghis Khan. By 1167 a regular service between Baghdad and Syria had been established by Sultan Nur ad-Din. In Damietta, by the mouth of the Nile, the Spanish traveller Pedro Tafur saw carrier pigeons for the first time, in 1436, though he imagined that the birds made round trips, out and back. The Republic of Genoa equipped their system of watch towers in the Mediterranean Sea with pigeon posts. Tipu Sultan of Mysore (1750–1799) also used messenger pigeons; they returned to the Jamia Masjid mosque in Srirangapatna, which was his headquarters. The pigeon holes may be seen in the mosque's minarets to this day. A great pigeon race called the Cannonball Run took place at Brussels in 1818. Pigeon post was rare before the 1820s. In 1860, Paul Reuter, who later founded Reuters press agency, used a fleet of over 45 pigeons to deliver news and stock prices between Brussels and Aachen, the terminus of early telegraph lines. During the Franco-Prussian War pigeons were used to carry mail between besieged Paris and the French unoccupied territory. In December 1870, it took ten hours for a pigeon carrying microfilms to fly from Perpignan to Brussels. Historically, pigeons carried messages only one way, to their home. They had to be transported manually before another flight. However, by placing their food at one location and their home at another location, pigeons have been trained to fly back and forth up to twice a day reliably, covering round-trip flights up to 160 km (100 mi). Their reliability has lent itself to occasional use on mail routes, such as the Great Barrier Pigeongram Service established between the Auckland, New Zealand, suburb of Newton and Great Barrier Island in November 1897, possibly the first regular air mail service in the world. The world's first "airmail" stamps were issued for the Great Barrier Pigeon-Gram Service from 1898 to 1908. In the 19th century, newspapers sometimes used carrier pigeons. To get news from Europe quicker, some New York City newspapers used carrier pigeons. The distance from Europe to Halifax, Nova Scotia, is relatively short. So reporters stationed themselves in Halifax, wrote the information received from incoming ships, and put the messages in capsules attached to the legs of homing pigeons. The birds would then fly from Halifax to New York City where the information would be published. The Swiss army stopped using pigeons in 1994. The military had used pigeons for 77 years and said it planned to train 12 of the 30,000 birds to compete on the European racing circuit. The rest were likely to "end up on people's dinner tables". Homing pigeons were still employed in the 21st century by certain remote police departments in Odisha state in eastern India to provide emergency communication services following natural disasters. In March 2002, it was announced that India's Police Pigeon Service messenger system in Odisha was to be retired, due to the expanded use of the Internet. The Taliban banned the keeping or use of pigeons, including racing pigeons, in Afghanistan in the late 1990s. To this day, pigeons are still entered into competitions.
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