Mystery of how homing pigeons find home solved

I thought this was an interesting study and I thought I would share.

The findings, published Wednesday in the Journal of Experimental Biology, may shed light on why the normally amazing navigators sometimes get completely lost: the low-frequency waves from their current location don't reach their home loft.

Prior research had shown that birds hear incredibly low-frequency sound waves of about 0.1 Hertz, or a tenth of a cycle per second. These infrasound waves may emanate from in the ocean and create tiny disturbances in the atmosphere. Hagstrum began to think the birds used infrasound for navigation. "If that sound in the Earth is coupling through the topography, then maybe the birds are actually sort of seeing, or imaging, their topography around their loft acoustically," he told LiveScience.

Source: www.nbcnews.com...

Apparently, this discovery came about from spending 14 years studying why they get lost. on clear days when the Concord or other supersonic jets were present they got lost which directed the study to sound waves.

On a side note we do know that these pigeons mate for life and when one was kept and the other taken the separated pigeon would find their mate so is it the combination of the two or would it have the same results if the male and female were taken to different locations would they fly home or to each other? By the resluts of this study they would meet at home.




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Originally posted by Agarta

On a side note we do know that these pigeons mate for life and when one was kept and the other taken the separated pigeon would find their mate so is it the combination of the two or would it have the same results if the male and female were taken to different locations would they fly home or to each other? By the resluts of this study they would meet at home.

edit on 31-1-2013 by Agarta because: forgot the source link

last year i had a pigeon turn up in my garden.. it was mostly tame, ate from my hand, and had a ring on it's leg (i messaged the owner after ringing the pigeon society people and they didn't get back to me).... this pigeon stayed with me being fed up for about 5 weeks.... one day it took off and i didn't see it the following day, the day after that it returned, with it's mate, also with a ring on it's leg and also fairly tame.

how did it know that a. it'd be able to break it's mate free? and b. how to get there and back at the right time to do it? i'll never know but it made me aware of the fact that much more goes on in their little heads than we realise.

Originally posted by ladyteeny
last year i had a pigeon turn up in my garden.. it was mostly tame, ate from my hand, and had a ring on it's leg (i messaged the owner after ringing the pigeon society people and they didn't get back to me).... this pigeon stayed with me being fed up for about 5 weeks.... one day it took off and i didn't see it the following day, the day after that it returned, with it's mate, also with a ring on it's leg and also fairly tame.

how did it know that a. it'd be able to break it's mate free? and b. how to get there and back at the right time to do it? i'll never know but it made me aware of the fact that much more goes on in their little heads than we realise.

are you sure its mate was locked in a loft? also them lofts have no way out, once they are through the Belgium bobs, they are stuck in the loft.

Also could it be that the owner had a race meet 5 weeks later and used his mate in this race lol.

Originally posted by amraks

Originally posted by ladyteeny
last year i had a pigeon turn up in my garden.. it was mostly tame, ate from my hand, and had a ring on it's leg (i messaged the owner after ringing the pigeon society people and they didn't get back to me).... this pigeon stayed with me being fed up for about 5 weeks.... one day it took off and i didn't see it the following day, the day after that it returned, with it's mate, also with a ring on it's leg and also fairly tame.

how did it know that a. it'd be able to break it's mate free? and b. how to get there and back at the right time to do it? i'll never know but it made me aware of the fact that much more goes on in their little heads than we realise.

are you sure its mate was locked in a loft? also them lofts have no way out, once they are through the Belgium bobs, they are stuck in the loft.

Also could it be that the owner had a race meet 5 weeks later and used his mate in this race lol.

my point exactly... no i'm not sure it's mate was in a loft... but my visiting pigeon left it 5 weeks before flying off to bring him back to my house... telepathy?

Excellent discovery!

I often marvel at the intelligence of birds.
They seem so often curious, yet aware at the same time.
Crows are my favorite bunch; I can't say I like pigeons as much...
But the Homing pigeon is a smart little bugger.

I have to wonder, now that they believe these birds use infrasound waves...
Is this what has killed of tens of thousands of birds around the globe?
Was there a change in the natural frequency that they use, that we can't hear?
Are those same low-frequency sound waves used to travel actually killing them?

Maybe the Earth, and it's natural frequency, is changing its tune to something more destructive!

Ahh my mind races.

There has been much research into the idea that pigeons use magnetic fields as a backup to the sun as a compass for determining direction. There is research that does show they can detect magnetic fields.

I think more research is needed before it is pronounced 'the method'. There is also some evidence that supports birds using multiple methods based on conditions and distance at the time they are released.

homing pigeons are the reason the world is such a goddamn mess!
and not because of their poop
the rothschilds became super rich because of them!

Not really...it predated the big plays.

The most widespread Rothschild myth was that Nathan, after receiving news by carrier pigeon of Wellington's victory at Waterloo, made a vast fortune speculating on the rise in British government securities. The reality, says Ferguson, was quite different. The Rothschilds' couriers did alert them first to Napoleon's defeat, but since they had bet big on a protracted military campaign, any quick gains in bonds after Waterloo were too small to offset the disruption to their business.

Rothschild capital did soar--but over a much longer period. Nathan's breakthrough was a deal to supply cash to Wellington's army in 1814. Waging a high-risk campaign of exchange-rate transactions, bond-price speculations, and commissions, the family garnered huge profits from this governmental financing. Then, from 500,000 pounds in 1818, Rothschild capital rose to 4,330,333 pounds in 1828--about 14 times the resources of their nearest competitor, Baring Brothers, which had been a close second. Their strategy: financing the postwar stabilization of Europe's conservative powers. That meant luring monarchs and ministers, such as Austrian Chancellor Metternich, into their orbit. What made the Rothschilds ''the dominant force in international finance after 1815'' was ''the sheer scale--and sophistication--of their operations.''

Link

reply to post by Agarta


I was riding through the country and came upon a guy parked on the side of the road with a wire cage holding a couple of dozen pigeons. I stopped for a chat. He told me they were homing pigeons and that he was training them. For the pigeons to know how to get from point A to point B and back to point A he would drive them a few kms then stop for half and hour while they 'homed in' on where they where, then he would repeat the process a further few kms on until the entire distance from A to B had been 'homed in'. Once this process had been accomplished he could release the birds from point A and they would fly directly to point B. But not all, a percentage of the birds would never be seen again so the system is not infallible. Still, its quite amazing that they have this ability. I wonder what an evolutionist would say?