Discover

Today
Animals
Explore
Archive
Search

Use it

Classroom
Resources
Field lab
Quiz
Saved

Trust

Methodology
Sources
Corrections
Accessibility
Contributors

Details

About
Contact
Privacy
Terms
Newsletter

Animal profile

Homing Pigeon

Columba livia domestica

AvesLofts and urban environments; ancestrally sea cliffs and rocky ledges

Field profile

The homing pigeon is a selected form of the rock dove, bred for the ability to return to its loft from distant release points. Birds routinely home from several hundred kilometres and have been recorded returning from well over a thousand. The same species, gone feral, is the ubiquitous city pigeon.

Scope note

This is an editorial profile, not a diagnostic field-identification guide or a substitute for current conservation assessments. Follow the cited sources on each fact for the evidence trail.

Published field notes

2025-05-04

Homing Pigeon

Pigeons navigate home by more than one map

Homing pigeons combine a sun compass, sensitivity to the Earth's magnetic field, low-frequency sound and, in several experiments, smell. No single sense accounts for the performance, and removing any one of them degrades rather than destroys it.

Read with evidence →

Homing Pigeon | Daily Animal Facts