| Racing Homer | ||||||
| Conservation Status | Common | |||||
| Country of origin | Belgium | |||||
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| Notes | ||||||
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| A good racing homer can average 60 mph through the air for hours at a time, a fast- racing pigeons have been clocked at 110 MPH. | ||||||
| Pigeon (Columba livia) | ||||||
A Racing Homer is a breed of pigeon that has been selectively bred for more speed, and enhanced homing instinct for the sport of Pigeon racing. A popular domestic pigeon breed, the Racing Homer is also one of the newest.
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Racing pigeons were first developed in Belgium and England during the Nineteenth Century.[1] They are the result of crossing of a number of other breeds, primarily the Smerle, French Cumulet, English Carrier, Dragoon, and the Horseman (now lost). From the high-flying Cumulet, the Homer received its endurance, the ability to fly for hours on end without tiring. From the Carrier, it inherited the ability to find its way home from great distances.[1]
Pigeons have been used to carry messages for centuries. However, during the Nineteenth Century, the communication value of the bird—especially for carrying messages during war—became appreciated. Breeders competed to develop ever faster birds. Competitions soon developed, with pigeon racing growing into a popular sport throughout Western Europe and, beginning in the early Twentieth Century, in the United States. Large purses are offered for race winners.
All participants in World War I made use of the Racing Homer's ability to carry messages, with the British alone employing approximately 9,500 birds. The Second World War once more saw the major powers make use of the Homing Pigeon.
Apart from the sport of racing against each other, fanciers also exhibit racing pigeons at organised shows and have a judge decide who has the better bird. British Homing World holds a show each year where all profits from the event are donated to both national and local charities, including Help the Aged and the Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus.[2]
Over the years, the racing pigeon has led to a number of other breeds, such as the American Show Racer, the Giant Homer (bred for utility meat purposes), among others.
In February 2008 a pigeon fancier paid a South African record R800,000 for a racing pigeon at auction. The auction, where he bought several other birds, was held after the Sun City Million Dollar Pigeon Race.[3] A pigeon was in the headlines in 1998 when its owner gave her to a friend in Algeciras, southern Spain, after retiring from breeding racing pigeons. The bird named Boomerang promptly flew the 1,200 miles back home. The bird was given away again but kept returning home. Recently after ten years away the bird returned once again.[4]
In the last decade or so, it was discovered that racing pigeons, as well as migratory birds, use the earth’s magnetic field to find their way home. This is done via the particular bacteria, Mg (magnetospirillum gryphiswaldenses), along with a particular protein science has named Nam-J. This combination creates microscopic magnetite material that attaches to the bird’s brain stem. With the correct sun rays the bird is able to paint a picture of different magnetic fields. This magnetic homing ability in racing pigeons only works for distances more than 50 miles away from the loft. When the bird comes within 50 miles of its loft, the magnetic field is not changing enough, and the bird finds its way home by memory.
In recent years, GPS (global positioning system) tracking devices are getting smaller and smaller. In late 2009, a company by the name of PigeonTrack introduced a GPS tracking device specifically for racing pigeons. The idea behind this was to develop a very lightweight system, in this case 16 grams, so that the bird could be trained to carry it 50, 60, 70 miles. This is equivalent to an average man carrying just a 6 pound backpack on a hike.
By using this miniature GPS data logger, one is able to see how a bird tries to find its way home so that one can continue training along that line after the bird leaves the race flock and flies to its home loft.
This product’s harness is designed after the Swedish harness used by their military to as late as 1994. In removing the 1 ¾” (44 millimeters) data logger, and plugging it into one’s computer and using program provided in the kit, one can see the terrain and the elevation of where the bird traveled. This allows the fancier to map out better release points for training the bird. Instead of just training it the way you think it wants to fly home from that 50 mile mark, you now train it the way instinct tells the bird to go home.