Buzz
In *Star Dust*, Woody Allen famously referred to pigeons as "rats with wings." This view is shared by many, as these birds dominate city parks and streets. They're often associated with disease, allergies, and their droppings can be found everywhere. They make their homes in attics, ventilation shafts, gutters, and drains, leading to millions of dollars in property damage annually. To top it off, pigeons are an invasive species, not native to this area.
Despite this, it's worth considering that pigeons may have played a bigger role in the progress of humanity than any other bird species—and perhaps even more than any other animal. From ancient times, they've been valuable sources of food, communication, and knowledge.
10. Their Historical Significance
When you think of domesticated animals, the first that probably come to mind are cows, dogs, and chickens. However, humans have been keeping pigeons for over 6,000 years. With more than 350 distinct breeds, pigeons offer as much variety as dogs do.
Pigeons trace their origins to the Middle Eastern rock pigeon. They became one of the most widespread bird species on Earth because our ancestors didn’t have to actively capture or tame them. Instead, they simply built dovecotes—places for the birds to nest. Once there, the pigeons did the rest. They would forage independently and, on average, each pair would produce about 10 squabs annually.
Interestingly, pigeons are considered tastier before they develop the muscle strength needed for flight, which is why their young were (and still are) eaten. Their droppings were also utilized as fertilizer due to the high nutritional value of their guano, which is rich in nutrients. Around 3,000 years ago, people began using pigeons’ homing abilities to deliver messages. In fact, the Chinese military plans to use pigeons as a backup form of communication in case other systems fail.
9. Darwin
Before the publication of Charles Darwin’s *Origin of the Species*, he shared drafts with some of his scholarly peers. The feedback wasn’t favorable. Whitwell Elwin described it as "a wild and foolish piece of imagination.”
Darwin’s challenge was that evolution is hard to observe directly. He needed a clear example that could be understood by everyone, even the layperson. So, he turned to pigeons. The first chapter of his book is nearly entirely dedicated to the birds he grew so fond of. In fact, both Elwin and Charles Lyell recommended that Darwin abandon *Origin of the Species* and focus solely on writing about pigeons.
Although Darwin's famous work with the Galapagos finches often steals the spotlight, his research on pigeons was equally crucial in shaping his theory of natural selection. Darwin was a passionate pigeon enthusiast, even suggesting that all pigeons came from the Middle Eastern rock pigeon, a theory now supported by recent scientific evidence.
8. Voting
Flocking is a fascinating behavior that seems to defy easy explanation. How do so many small birds manage to fly together in perfect formation? For pigeons, it appears there’s quite a bit of democratic decision-making involved.
With today’s technology, we can attach GPS trackers to pigeons and use computers to track their exact movements. Researchers discovered that every bird in the flock gets a vote on the direction of flight. Birds at the front have more influence, but even the lowest-ranking bird has some say in the decision-making process.
Scientists call this system a “democratic hierarchy.” Thanks to their almost 360-degree vision, pigeons can observe each other and adjust quickly. Even the leading bird can keep tabs on its followers without needing to turn its head.
The most dominant pigeons are determined by raw speed. The bird that can travel from point A to point B the quickest is typically the one leading the flock.
7. Patterns
Pigeons are often used in scientific studies because they’re easy to care for and train. Despite their brains being no larger than the tip of your index finger, pigeons are especially skilled at recognizing patterns. Psychologists at Keio University in Tokyo trained pigeons to distinguish between the paintings of Monet and Picasso with 90 percent accuracy. They even included other impressionist works with Monet’s and additional cubist pieces alongside Picasso’s paintings.
Pigeons can also be trained to differentiate between good and bad paintings, as well as watercolors and pastels. Even more impressively, it only takes 15 days to teach a pigeon to distinguish between benign and malignant breast cancer with 85 percent accuracy. A team of four pigeons working together got it right 99 percent of the time. For context, pathologists with four years of schooling only get it right 97 percent of the time.
So it seems that four pigeons are comparable to holding a degree from Johns Hopkins University. However, it’s worth noting that pigeons struggled more with reading mammograms. People are seriously considering using pigeons for such work on a full-time basis, as they could potentially replace clinicians for certain routine tasks.
6. Recognize People
Common city pigeons can recognize individual people. Researchers in Paris discovered that if you visit a park and shoo a pigeon away, it will remember you and avoid you next time. On the other hand, if you offer them food, they will chase you down, mobbing you for seeds. Surprisingly, when two researchers swapped coats, the pigeons were not deceived, even though the women were similar in age, skin tone, and build. It seemed the pigeons were able to recognize their faces.
Another study conducted in London demonstrated that pigeons could distinguish between pictures of people they recognized and those they didn’t. Even more remarkable was an experiment at the University of Iowa, where pigeons were trained to identify and differentiate between various facial expressions.
They can tell whether you’re smiling or frowning. While the birds didn’t understand what the different expressions meant, they could still tell the difference between emotions like anger, happiness, disgust, and surprise.
5. Project Sea Hunt
In the 1970s and 1980s, the US Navy trained pigeons for the coast guard in a project known as Sea Hunt. The birds were tasked with assisting in rescue operations by locating debris and life jackets floating in the water. As unusual as it sounds, the pigeons could spot targets 93 percent of the time on their first pass, while the human aircrew only located the objects 38 percent of the time.
Pigeons have exceptional vision and a broader field of view than humans, making them perfectly suited for the job. The birds could also maintain their vigilance for hours, whereas humans often suffer from eye fatigue and quickly lose focus.
The system functioned like this: three pigeons were placed inside a plastic bubble beneath a helicopter. If they spotted something, they would tap a switch. Although the coast guard showed interest in continuing with the project, budget cuts shut it down in 1983.
4. Math
In 1998, psychologists found that they could teach rhesus monkeys to count and understand some basic mathematical principles. However, primates have highly developed brains with a complex, layered cortex. Birds, on the other hand, do not. In fact, birds and mammals diverged in their evolutionary paths over 300 million years ago.
That’s why researchers were so surprised when they managed to teach pigeons the same skill. In fact, pigeons performed just as well at math as rhesus monkeys. At the University of Otago in New Zealand, researchers spent a year training pigeons to arrange shapes on a screen in ascending order based on the number of objects in each image.
Even scientists who specialize in testing pigeon intelligence were taken aback by the pigeons' remarkable ability to accomplish such a task. As neuroscientist Elizabeth Brannon from Duke University explained on sciencemag.org, “These [recent] discoveries imply that, despite vast differences in brain structure and hundreds of millions of years of evolutionary divergence, pigeons and monkeys approach this challenge in a remarkably similar manner.”
3. Spies
Pigeons have frequently been employed during wartime, with some even being awarded medals for their service. The Korean War is believed to be the last major conflict where carrier pigeons were used. Nonetheless, certain nations have attempted to expand the birds' roles beyond simply delivering messages.
During World War I, the Germans experimented with the idea of using pigeons for photography. In the early 1900s, Julius Neubronner developed a miniature, automatic camera that could be attached to a homing pigeon. With limited access to planes but an abundance of pigeons, the Germans thought these birds would be ideal for aerial reconnaissance. However, their plan never progressed past the testing phase.
However, this wasn't the final chapter for pigeon cameras. In the 1970s, the CIA attached cameras to pigeons to gather intelligence on the enemy. The exact details of what these pigeons photographed remain a mystery since their missions are still classified.
2. Smuggling
A new trend in smuggling involves pigeons, particularly when attempting to get drugs into prisons. Pigeons are capable of carrying loads up to 10 percent of their body weight, equating to 30–50 grams of drugs. This occurred in Bosnia’s most secure prison, where inmates actually raise pigeons as part of their rehabilitation process.
In La Reforma prison in Costa Rica, pigeons have been caught smuggling cocaine and cannabis. But it's not just pigeons—cats and iguanas have been involved too. Yet drugs aren’t the only contraband being transported by birds. In South Africa, pigeons are used to smuggle diamonds, a problem that has become a headache for mining companies. Some mine owners have even threatened to exterminate all pigeons in the area, but pigeon enthusiasts have organized vigorous protests against these actions.
One of the most bizarre stories involved a man caught at an Australian airport with live pigeons strapped to his legs. Maybe no one informed him that it's the pigeon's legs that are supposed to carry the contraband, not his own.
1. Navigation
Pigeons are renowned for their uncanny ability to find their way home. Despite extensive studies on these remarkable birds, scientists still can’t fully explain how they do it, even though numerous news reports claim to have figured it out over the years.
There are several possible theories. One such theory suggests that pigeons have three different methods to detect the Earth's magnetic field. Their beaks contain tiny particles of magnetite, a substance that has been shown to work in magnetic-sensing bacteria. Interestingly, when a bird’s beak is anesthetized, its ability to navigate is lost, lending some weight to this explanation.
One possibility is that special proteins in a pigeon’s eye break into two molecules when exposed to light. If these molecules are magnetically sensitive, quantum entanglement could allow them to interact, helping the birds identify changes in the magnetic field. As they notice patterns that remain constant even when they turn their heads, they would be able to sense magnetic direction.
Another theory suggests that microscopic iron particles in the neurons of a pigeon’s inner ear help them detect magnetic fields. Some researchers also propose that pigeons use acoustic maps created from infrasound, a low-frequency sound produced by the Earth, mainly from the oceans. The most unusual theory, however, is that pigeons might rely on their sense of smell to navigate.
