Crazy Question Pigeon mail

[zak92 0]

I will not make this long and something like that but can anyone tell me how people send messages with pigeons. I mean how do the pigeons know where to go?

[sheepdog 10]

They are "homing" pigeons. They will fly back to where ever they live. So what you have to do is get the pigeon from who ever you are going to send a message to first. The pigeon must live at the home where you want to send the message. Then you just attache the message and turn it loose.

[rize619 0]

dont be silly mani think this question should be awarded as the stupid question of the year..

[t3jem 0]

I'm not sure, but i think all they reall do is have to take the pigeon to the place they want to send it for awhile, then when the owner goes home with the pigeon they can attach the letter and send the pigeon out and the pigeon can go back and forth; however, i am not positive and have not done any research on it.Another possibility is that pigeons are just another bird wizards use to send messages (i'm just kidding)

[cwconline 0]

You know... I really havent heard of pigeons doing that! Weird But what the person said a little above me said they fly home, there is logic in that... And No question is a stupid question that is worth asking... I have heard of hawks, and sparows doing that... but i have seen research shown that several birds where taged before migration there nest where tagged as well, and when the migrated south, and then came back a 3/5 birds went to there orginal nest... kinda like what you are saying, but finding the right pigeon esspecialy in new york where most pegions are may be a problem hope i helped

[rvalkass 5]

Pigeon mail and pigeon post were widely used during wars before the advent of a reliable radio system. Pigeons were trained to fly between two places, so they could take messages out, wait for a reply to be written, and take it back. The system was so important during wartime that large penalties were put in place for killing pigeons (as seen in Blackadder) and rewards for killing their predators. Some countries also trained birds of pray to go out and kill enemy pigeons (Germany used hawks to kill French pigeons, for example).

 

Newspapers and stockbrokers also found the system useful for quickly reporting information between offices or other set locations. However, the training required to make the pigeons know where to fly was often quite prohibitive for it to get wide usage outside the military.

[sheepdog 10]

Well......I didn't think it was that silly. After all, I discovered that some city people thought that cows spent their whole lives hooked up to milking machines. Now THAT is silly!

[dastrophy 0]

A pigeons sense of direction is apparently very good due to their inbuilt "compass"...not sure how it works, but they can tell which way is north with their eyes closed, hence their ability to find their way home: however all bird's navigational skills must be pretty good if they all migrate between continents each year

[zak92 0]

Yeah I think rvalkass got it right. Thanks everyone its crazy and strange how much nature can do but since we have technology no one cares but this is still a good way in India that many youngsters use to keep in touch with their lovers.

[Nik 0]

Pigeon post is the use of homing pigeon. Initially before 12th century Pigeon post was used to send messages. Army officers were using this Pigeon post method for posting messages faster. The Pigeon is given the letter in his mouth and Pigeon goes to the destination house with letter in his mouth. This was the example of the speed post before 12th century.

[Bikerman 2]

I will not make this long and something like that but can anyone tell me how people send messages with pigeons. I mean how do the pigeons know where to go?

It isn't at all a stupid question - it is quite profound.
Some suggestions are that pigeons use a combination of geo-magnetic 'sense' plus landmarks. So pigeons seem to be able to sense the lines of geomagnetism around the earth, but they don't actually follow a straight-line path which indicates that they are also using some external prompts - probably roads/railways/rivers and other features of that sort.
Edited August 17, 2010 by Bikerman (see edit history)