How does a pigeon find it's way home?

Answer 1

Researchers have cracked the puzzle of how pigeons find their way home: they just follow the main roads.

Zoologists now believe the phrase "as the crow flies" no longer means the shortest most direct route between two points. They say it is likely that crows and other diurnal birds also choose AA-suggested routes, even though it makes their journeys longer.

Some pigeons stick so rigidly to the roads that they even fly round roundabouts before choosing the exit to lead them back to their lofts.

Animal behaviouralists at Oxford University are stunned by their findings, which follow 10 years of research into homing pigeons. For the last 18 months they have used the latest global-positioning technology, allowing them to track the ground the birds covered to within one to four metres.

"It really has knocked our research team sideways to find that after a decade-long international study, pigeons appear to ignore their inbuilt directional instincts and follow the road system," said Prof Tim Guilford, reader in animal behaviour at Oxford University's Department of Zoology.

"For long-distance navigation and for birds doing a journey for the first time, they will use their inbuilt compasses and take sun and star bearings.

"But once homing pigeons have flown a journey more than once, they home in on a habitual route home, much as we do when we are driving or walking home from work.

"In short, it looks like it is mentally easier for a bird to fly down a road and then turn right. They are just making their journey as simple as possible".

Answer 2

Pigeons have senses that allow them to be tuned very closely to the magnetic field, using these senses they are able to navigate even when the starting point is a place they have never been.

Answer 3

They tracked pigeons and found they follow roads!

Answer 4

Pigeons have GPS..gross poopoo smelly. Yes they use their powerful nose to track back their poopoo(feces) on their bird cage. They have strong poopoo unable to detect by human nose that penetrates thru their cage.

Answer 5

They can memorise the coordinate (exact location ) of their home by using the magnetic field.

Just like longtitude and latitude.

Answer 6

it think they use the magnetic field that surrounds the earth, cus they can see in infrared, ultraviolet and can see the magnetic field, so then they can follow it wherever they're goin.

Answer 7

it has senses that finds its way home. its special.

Answer 8

all the animals have very good memory

Answer 9

they follow their nose

Answer 10

instinks