20 Facts About Racing Pigeons

Technically speaking, a homing pigeon was generally a wood pigeon trained to bring a message back to its original loft. This detail is important: the bird didn’t simply fly to whatever address had been scribbled on a small piece of paper. It did what it did best: find its way back to its loft with a message to deliver.

As charming as it may seem to imagine pigeons carrying mailbags, a homing pigeon usually returned to its loft. If you wanted to send a reply, the other party had to have its own trained birds ready to go. That is why the pigeon postal service depended on careful planning, the location of the lofts, and people who knew exactly which loft each bird was supposed to return to.

The history of homing pigeons goes back much further than most people realize—and we’re not just talking about World War I and World War II. The earliest written record dates back to the reign of Ramses III, around 1200 B.C., when pigeons were used to relay information about the Nile’s flood levels from one city to another.

In ancient times, radio didn’t exist, but do you know what took its place? That’s right: pigeons! Long before sports alerts started appearing on our phones, these little birds helped relay the results of sporting events. Historical accounts even link them to news of the ancient Olympic Games, where information about victories could be sent to the winner’s hometown. 

Make no mistake: other civilizations also relied on this bird, notably the Romans, who used pigeons to transmit messages. Among their other uses were transmitting messages across the empire, as well as sending information about the results of the Olympic Games to groups of gamblers. 

No, this isn’t a joke. In 1850, Paul Julius Reuter set up a carrier pigeon service between Aachen and Brussels, thereby bridging a gap between telegraph lines. This route connected the German and Franco-Belgian telegraph terminals before Reuter moved to England in 1851 and opened an office near the London Stock Exchange.

Reuter’s carrier pigeon service did more than just deliver daily mail; it also conveyed business and stock market information between Aachen and Brussels, thereby giving its clients faster access to market data than was possible with slower modes of transportation. 

During the Franco-Prussian War, the siege of Paris in 1870 and 1871 cut off the usual lines of communication. It seemed like a real nightmare—until someone remembered a small detail: the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum preserves microfilms related to the carrier pigeon service of that era, containing dispatches sent via this method. In short, pigeons were an integral part of the vital communications network.

In this regard, Paris was not the only place to use microfilm messages. When parchment proved too bulky, messages could be reduced to microfilm, allowing a small bird to carry far more information than a simple handwritten note. 

One might think that the telegraph immediately put an end to the pigeon’s career, but this isn’t about artificial intelligence, and technology didn’t simply sweep away an entire system. Cables could be cut, radios could break down, and battlefields could reduce modern equipment to useless scrap metal. It is precisely for this reason that pigeon-based messaging services retained real value.

During World War I, communications at the front were often unreliable and dangerous, making pigeons the most sensible solution. The U.S. Army Signal Corps established its pigeon service in November 1917, after British and French experience had demonstrated the usefulness of these birds. Thus, when foot messengers and radios were unreliable, a pigeon returning to its coop was the best remaining option.

In reality, war heroes come in all shapes, sizes… and species. Cher Ami is undoubtedly the most famous American military pigeon of World War I, best known for delivering a crucial message despite suffering serious injuries. It’s worth noting that some details stem from a century of myths and collective memory, but that in no way detracts from this bird’s extraordinary journey.

For years, Cher Ami was often referred to using feminine pronouns based on old Signal Corps documents, but that all changed in 2021. DNA tests conducted by the Smithsonian confirmed that Cher Ami was, in fact, biologically male.

The PDSA’s Dickin Medal, established during World War II, honored animals for their courage and dedication to duty. To date, it has been awarded 75 times, not counting one honorary award, and 32 of the recipients were pigeons!

Winkie: a homing pigeon, a brave bird, and the first to receive the PDSA’s Dickin Medal on December 2, 1943. She is credited with helping to save the lives of the crew of a downed aircraft after returning to base under particularly difficult conditions. 

No, we’re not talking about the children’s toy. We’re talking about G.I. Joe, a U.S. Army pigeon decorated for a flight it made in Italy during World War II. According to the PDSA, he was the first non-British pigeon to receive the Dickin Medal, which was presented to him at the Tower of London on November 4, 1946. If you read his biography, you’ll see that he is credited with the most remarkable flight ever made by a U.S. Army pigeon during the war.

We shouldn’t give all the credit to men. Mary of Exeter was another famous war pigeon with a spectacular career! She joined the British National Pigeon Service in the 1940s and carried top-secret messages from behind enemy lines. Her story became so famous that Exeter eventually honored the partnership between Mary and her owner by dedicating a commemorative plaque to her.

Scientists continue to study homing pigeons, which makes perfect sense when you think about it. Let’s not forget that their navigation system is incredibly complex. Even though we don’t yet have all the answers, research has identified several mechanisms, including an olfactory map, a solar compass, magnetic perception, and familiar visual landmarks. 

One of the most surprising findings regarding their navigation is the importance of their sense of smell. A study published in 2024 describes the olfactory system as an essential component of the “olfactory map” that homing pigeons use to determine their location when they find themselves in new environments. 

Carrier pigeons eventually lost their role as everyday messengers. Once people realized that the telegraph, the telephone, the radio, and digital systems could transmit information more quickly, these birds were quickly relegated to the background. But not for us. We know that their legacy lives on in museums, military histories, and stories of war heroes!