What are the origins of this fun-filled festive custom?
Still in the 19th century, the pigeon was used to carry messages for financial institutions and news agencies in Europe. Then in the 20th century, pigeons were used as messengers in war, saving thousands of human lives with their heroism. The last messaging service using pigeons was reportedly disbanded in India in 2006.
The pigeon was actually domesticated by humans, as early as 10,000 years ago. Pigeons were selectively bred from the wild rock dove. Their domestication puts them in the same category as our beloved dogs—which were likely domesticated over 23,000 years ago in Siberia.
The pigeon is probably best known for its ability to return 'home' from long distances, as far as 1,300 miles (2,092 km) away. Humans have taken great advantage of this skill. The earliest reference to the pigeon being used to carry messages dates back to 2500 BCE. The tradition has continued throughout history, from the Romans and ancient Greeks to the first sophisticated messaging service established in Syria and Persia in the 12th century CE.
Pigeon racing is still enjoyed by large numbers of enthusiasts worldwide. The modern-day sport of pigeon racing reportedly started in Belgium in 1850, and involves releasing pigeons to fly over a carefully measured distance to see which can do it fastest.
Pigeons can not only return home quickly and efficiently, but they can also do it after being transported in complete isolation to a location they’ve never been. It’s still largely a mystery to scientists, but their navigational skills in combination with their speed and the fact that they can carry up to 10% of their body weight made them perfect for humans’ communication purposes.
Pigeons are referenced in religious texts and attributed symbolic significance in religions including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Sikhism, and Hinduism. The first historical indication of a religious significance associated with the domesticated pigeon was in 3000 BCE, during excavations of temples and tombs in Egypt.
A pigeon named Cher Ami delivered 12 important messages for the US military during WWI, and on his final mission he was shot in the breast and still managed to fly 25 minutes to deliver a message that saved the lives of 194 stranded soldiers. Cher Ami received the Croix de Guerre medal from the French government and became a fan favorite out of the hundreds of pigeons used during wartime.
Pigeon racing is also a lucrative industry with star racers fetching huge sums of money. A star racing pigeon named Armando, who is Belgium's best long-distance racer of all time, sold for US$1.4 million in an auction in 2019. The following year, New Kim, another Belgian racing bird, sold for $1.9 million.
So, as you’ve now seen, for centuries humans have exploited pigeons for food, sport, service, and more, taking advantage of their intelligence and faithfulness until now, in the 21st century, pigeons have outlived their usefulness.
Renowned psychologist B.F. Skinner came up with the US military-funded idea to train pigeons to guide missiles towards enemy targets more accurately. He conditioned pigeons to peck at certain images such as enemy ships, then placed them in a tiny cockpit with a screen that displayed the missile’s flight path. The pigeons would peck at the familiar images on screen, steering the missile. It in fact proved effective, but the US military pulled the plug after deciding it was too outlandish.
Pigeons can recognize all 26 letters of the alphabet, and they can be taught relatively complex actions and response sequences. They are also able to differentiate between photos of different humans, and even two different people in the same photograph.
While many people in the US believe pigeons have origins in the country due to their ubiquity, pigeons are actually native to North Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. Europeans initially brought pigeons to North America in the 1600s as a source of food.
Pigeons, like humans, can see in color, but unlike humans they can also see ultraviolet light. That’s why they have been used in search and rescue missions at sea.
Researchers at the University of California, Davis trained pigeons to identify which biopsies were benign and which were malignant, and once they learned how to distinguish between the two, they were able to “diagnose” new biopsies with an accuracy that is expected of a doctor.
You’ve probably noticed that feral pigeons—also known as city pigeons, who are descendants of domestic pigeons and now live in the “wild”—love to nest on any accessible building ledge. That actually harkens back to the wild rock dove, from which pigeons were domesticated, as rock doves naturally inhabit sea-cliffs and mountains.
Though the much-maligned bird is not often thought of as beautiful, there are indeed pigeon pageants, which are much like dog shows, where you can see the finest pigeons shake their tail feathers.
Pigeons have admirable family units and generally mate for life. Both parents also split childcare—they both sit on the nest and they both produce crop milk, which is a milk-like substance formed in the esophagus that functions a lot like breast milk in that it’s a vital food source for baby pigeons.
Pigeons have been found to pass the “mirror test,” which is the ability to recognize its own reflection in a mirror. The pigeon is one of very few species to have this ability.
When we think of pigeons today, many see annoying, dirty, garbage-eating pests that leave their excrement in the most inconvenient places. And maybe all of those things are true to a degree, but pigeons are our own making.
The real source of the pigeon problem is the available food, as pigeons breed all year round according to the extent of food available to them.
If food is readily available, and assuming that good breeding conditions exist, the feral pigeon will breed between four and eight times a year, usually bringing two into the world each time, and a juvenile pigeon can breed in its first year of life. So, according to basic math, unless the available food is strictly controlled, pigeons will continue to breed rapidly out of control.
There’s a common myth that pigeons are a particularly diseased bird, but they’re no more likely to carry avian disease than any other bird. The reason why feral birds are attributed this dangerous reputation is because we feed them our trash, so they ingest all sorts of dangerous chemicals and bacteria.
PiCAS International reportedly pioneered a method of controlling feral pigeon populations using oral birth control. This method reduces pigeon flock size humanely and effectively, and it's simple and inexpensive. A number of European countries have already started using it, to great results.
With such a varied history alongside human beings, we have a debt to the pigeon that should be paid in the most ethical treatment possible. We can’t wipe out their population just because they have become inconvenient—especially since humans are the source of the problem. Even though man no longer has a need for the pigeon, there remains a place for this much-maligned bird.
Sources: (Pigeon Control Resource Centre) (PiCAS UK Limited) (Popular Science) (Salon) (Excel Pest Services) (Birds & Blooms)
See more: Impressive perspectives: A bird's-eye view of America
In some parts of the world, the pigeon has become persecuted and slaughtered by humans at a rate that would have surely made any other species extinct. Millions of feral pigeons are killed annually by the pest control industry for commercial gain.
The pest control industry has cleverly created propaganda around an alleged “pigeon problem,” to which they provide a solution: slaughter. But scientific research and research carried out by PiCAS (Pigeon Control Advisory Service) International has proven that killing pigeons as a method of control actually increases their flock size by between 12% and 30% within a matter of months, conveniently perpetuating the problem. Reports PiCAS: "This is because killing adult pigeons in a feeding flock favours younger birds that would otherwise have a poorer chance of survival. Many older non-breeding birds are removed during these culling operations and the younger healthy breeding stock remains in situ and thrives as a result."
In the early 20th century, pigeon photography was introduced by the German chemist Julius Gustav Neubronner (1852–1932). He'd previously used pigeons to deliver medication, but in 1907 he had the idea of attaching a lightweight, time-delayed miniature camera to the birds, though they weren't so effective in wartime. Though there were notable exceptions.
In 16th-century England, pigeon production for meat became commercial and widely accessible. Europeans then brought pigeons to the US, where “squab,” which is young pigeon, was initially also seen as a source of food and nutrition. But following WWII, pigeon was replaced with factory-farmed chicken. Pigeon is still used in some places in dishes like game pie—which serves the bird in a flaky golden pastry—or pâté.
Our interactions with pigeons these days usually involve shooing them away from our food or sighing through their endless showers of excrement over our cars, benches, and balconies. They are seen as a dirty, diseased nuisance, pecking their way through our garbage and displaying seemingly no function in the animal kingdom at all. But no matter how much people despise these so-called “rats with wings,” we only have ourselves to blame.
Humans have largely forgotten that pigeons were actually domesticated many years ago. Ever since, pigeons have proved to be an incredibly smart and talented species. They’ve provided numerous functions for humans (even saving lives), yet after pulling them out of their homes to provide us services, humans now regard them like invasive city pests.
Indeed, there’s much to learn about the pigeon that's beyond street-level, so click through to find out why it’s the most misunderstood bird in the world.
Pigeons: Unveiling the hidden talents of the world's most misunderstood bird
The so-called “rats with wings” were actually domesticated by humans
LIFESTYLE Animals
Our interactions with pigeons these days usually involve shooing them away from our food or sighing through their endless showers of excrement over our cars, benches, and balconies. They are seen as a dirty, diseased nuisance, pecking their way through our garbage and displaying seemingly no function in the animal kingdom at all. But no matter how much people despise these so-called “rats with wings,” we only have ourselves to blame.
Humans have largely forgotten that pigeons were actually domesticated many years ago. Ever since, pigeons have proved to be an incredibly smart and talented species. They’ve provided numerous functions for humans (even saving lives), yet after pulling them out of their homes to provide us services, humans now regard them like invasive city pests.
Indeed, there’s much to learn about the pigeon that's beyond street-level, so click through to find out why it’s the most misunderstood bird in the world.