If you Love Pigeons, You are in Good Company

Charles Darwin - (theorist) Scientist and Author whose writings include " On the Origin of Species (1859) The Descent Of Man (1871), The Voyage Of The Beagle (1909)" and a "A variety of plants and animals under domestication". Together with Wallace, offered the theory of evolution. Darwin kept all kinds of breeds of pigeons and who showed us that all breeds can be traced to Columba livia, the wild rock dove. He had a loft with a variety of fancy breeds which he used to develop his hypothesis of "Theory of Domestication" using selective breeding techniques. He was an active member of some London pigeon clubs, and reference to his pigeons and his scientific results is published and available on-line.

Pablo Picasso - (artist). Picasso loved pigeons so much that he named his daughter Paloma, which means pigeon in Spanish. Picasso's father also kept pigeons and specialized in painting the same.

Nicola Tesla. - American electricity pioneer. See: http://www.mercury.gr/tesla/lifeen.html.
"He used to have a walk every day in the park to feed the pigeons. If for any reason, he could not carry out this duty, he would pay a child to feed the pigeons in his place. There is a strange relation mentioned with a white pigeon which every day visited Tesla through his open window. He was kicked out of a few high brow Hotels for that, he would bring in injured birds and try to rehab them in the room. Tesla said that his life had a meaning as long as this pigeon existed, and indeed when the pigeon died, Tesla's work ended."

Isaac Bashevis Singer -In "PIGEONS" Singer wrote the most beautiful story I know about the Holocaust. Not surprisingly, it does not take on the subject directly but symbolically. The story has to do with one Professor Eibeschutz, a scholar who has taken to feeding the pigeons on the street below his apartment. He tells his Polish maid Tekla that doing so is more important to him than going to synagogue. "God is not hungry for praise," he reasons, "but the pigeons wait each day from sunrise to be fed. There is no better way to serve the Creator than to be kind to his creatures." One recalls here that, when asked why he had turned vegetarian, Singer said that he did it not for his own but for the chicken's sake.

Woody Allen - "I think people should mate for life, like pigeons or Catholics."

Walt Disney -Walt Disney was awarded the NPA Levi Service Award for the movie "Pigeon Fly Home".

Senator Hilaire La Haye, -Secretary to the Belgium Govt, he named his birds after prominent members of the Belgium Government.

Alexander Alexandrovich Romanova III - The Batiushka-Tsar of Russia kept his pigeons in a house like a small palace at Gatchina until his sad and surprising death in the Crimea in 1894. These pigeons were named "Ostanski Golubi" and "Pokrovski" that he acquired from his brother Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich Romanova after watching them fly as the young Tsarevich at Tsarskoe Selo.

Karl Hagenbeck - Who kept all kinds of breeds at his zoo in Hamburg, Germany. Hagenbeck was the first or among the first to do away with cages at his zoo, using moats instead.

Andy Capp - famous cartoon character.

Dr. Jean Hansell - "People just don't make the connection between the dove of peace and the pigeon in the street."

Jim Jenner - A pigeon enthusiast and filmmaker from Montana who has dedicated much of his life to making educational documentaries about his favorite bird. "For the past fifty years, I've watched the total erosion of respect for the bird," Jim says. "One of the world's most revered creatures and one of nature's most phenomenal athletes has been reduced to the status of vermin in the minds of the general public." Jenner is right, of course: Once a war hero, the feral pigeon is now the underdog of the animal kingdom.

Pigeons were brought to the United States by the first settlers. It is thought that they originated in Southern Asia. They have a typical lifespan of about 15 years, and the oldest known pigeon lived to be 33 years old. Like most humans, pigeons have a strong sense of family and devotion to their children. They mate for life, and both parents care for their young. They flock in large numbers in order to protect themselves against cats, hawks, owls, and rats. During breeding season, when there are many baby birds, both male and female pigeons produce milk in their crops, and all parents will feed all babies, whether or not they are their own.

Pigeons are known to be very intelligent. They quickly commit new images to memory and organize information in the same way that humans do. They can even distinguish between paintings of different styles and by different artists.

Pigeons also have excellent vision. They can see not just color, but also ultraviolet light. They can see far better than humans can and also are able to concentrate on a visual task for many more hours than we can—a discovery that led to a joint Coast Guard and Navy venture called Project Sea Hunt, in which pigeons were used to spot orange life vests at sea.

By sensing the Earth’s magnetic field through the use of a magnetic “map” inside their beaks, pigeons are able to return to their home roosts even when released in a new location several thousand miles away. The ancient Egyptians and Romans used pigeons as reliable messengers, Reuters News Service was originally created with a network of message-carrying pigeons, and pigeons have been used to carry messages in times of war.

In World War I, a pigeon named Cher Ami delivered a vital message to the famous “Lost Battalion.” Cher Ami saved nearly 200 human lives but was shot on his way and was blinded and lost a leg on his final flight. In World War II, a pigeon named GI Joe saved at least 1,000 allied soldiers’ lives by making it back to camp in the nick of time carrying a message that allied troops had just occupied a city about to be bombed. He was awarded the Dickin Medal for gallantry by the Lord Mayor of London.

"Cher Ami" was a registered Black Check Cock carrier pigeon, one of 600 birds owned and flown by the U.S. Army Signal Corps in France during World War I.

He delivered 12 important messages within the American sector at Verdun, France. On his last mission, "Cher Ami," shot through the breast by enemy fire, managed to return to his loft. A message capsule was found dangling from the ligaments of one of his legs that also had been shattered by enemy fire. The message he carried was from Major Whittlesey's "Lost Battalion" of the 77th Infantry Division that had been isolated from other American forces.

Just a few hours after the message was received, 194 survivors of the battalion were safe behind American lines .

"Cher Ami" was awarded the French "Croix de Guerre" with Palm for his heroic service between the forts of Verdun. He died in 1919 as a result of his battle wounds. "Cher Ami" was later inducted into the Racing Pigeon Hall of Fame in 1931 and received a gold medal from the Organized Bodies of American Racing Pigeon Fanciers in recognition of his extraordinary service during World War I.

"Cher Ami" is on display at the National Museum of American History, Behring Center, in the exhibition "The Price of Freedom: Americans At War."

Prepared by the Armed Forces History Collectionsin cooperation with the Public Inquiry Mail Service 12/01

Pigeons are beloved in books and film and have been featured in many movies, including the Michael Landon film Where Pigeons Go to Die and the Charlton Heston film The Pigeon That Took Rome. The 2005 Valiant tells the story of a pigeon hero in the Royal Air Force.

Humans have long recognized the likable qualities of pigeons and have made pigeons a large part of their lives. Such “pigeon fanciers” include Queen Elizabeth II, George Foreman, Mike Tyson, Yul Brynner, Marlon Brando, Tony Curtis, Elvis Presley, Charles Darwin, Walt Disney, Claude Monet, and Pablo Picasso.

Auction Recalls War Hero Pigeons

Auction recalls wartime pigeons
1/4/2008,
By JILL LAWLESS

The Associated Press
LONDON (AP)

They were a secret airborne force who worked undercover during World War II. Those who were discovered were shot — or eaten by falcons.

A London auction this month has revived memories of the war's animal heroes, including pigeons who flew dangerous missions to bring messages from behind enemy lines.
Several pigeon portraits from the collection of a wartime bird-breeder are included in the "Gentleman's Library" sale, an eclectic array of items being offered at Bonhams auction house Jan. 15.

The paintings are owned by Jack Lovell, a pigeon breeder who was approached by British intelligence services in 1939 to provide birds for covert operations. The avian unit, overseen by military intelligence, was housed in secret pigeon lofts in the coastal city of Dover.

Pigeons' homing instinct make them excellent messengers, and more than 200,000 served with British forces during the war. Thousands were placed in containers fitted with parachutes and dropped by British bombers behind enemy lines, where they were picked up by Resistance fighters or sympathetic locals and used to send messages back to England.

Others worked as double agents, fitted with tags identical to those worn by Nazi-owned pigeons in the hope they would be given coded messages which they could bring to British code-breaking headquarters at Bletchley Park, near London.

"When it came to the D-Day landings a lot of soldiers were sent off with a pigeon which they kept under their coats, because there was complete radio silence," Bonhams spokeswoman Charlotte Wood said Friday. Those who survived brought back intelligence about German gun positions on the Normandy beaches.

It was dangerous work. The Germans deployed falcons to pick off the British birds. Domestic predators were also a threat.

Thirty-two pigeons were awarded the Dickin medal, Britain's highest award for animal valor. They include an American bird named GI Joe, credited with flying 20 miles in 20 minutes with a message that stopped U.S. planes bombing an Italian town occupied by British troops.
The portraits at Bonhams, painted in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, depict champion racing pigeons owned by Jule Janssen, a Belgian breeder whose birds were the ancestors of Lovell's wartime flock. They are estimated to sell for between $600 and $1,400 each.

The sale also includes a silver candlestick inscribed to Jet, a German shepherd awarded the Dickin medal for finding survivors in the rubble of bombed London buildings.

Bonhams said the auction features "a wide range of typical accessories for a gentleman's library," including furniture, bronzes, busts, lamps, walking canes and humidors.

Other items set to go under the hammer: a tiger skin rug with mounted head; a Boy Scout hat once owned by the movement's founder, Robert Baden-Powell; a pair of glass cucumber straighteners and a lock of hair belonging to Catherine Parr, sixth wife of Henry VIII.

Bonhams director Robert Bleasdale said the items were intended to reflect a sense of "comfort, nostalgia, the unusual, fun."

"It's more of a gentleman's indulgence, really," he said.

Related Articles:
Photo: WWII Pigeons Mounted With Cameras Took Aerial Photos
GPS-Equipped Pigeons Enlisted as Pollution Bloggers (October 31, 2006)
Video: D-Day Plane Returns to France (November 21, 2007)

Video: Pigeons in Combat