Brandon Twp.- When Robert Wilson drives to work at EDS in Detroit, he sometimes takes feathered friends with him, in the trunk.
The birds don’t stay with him, though. As he starts his workday, they start theirs. He lets them go from the roof of his work building and they fly about 50 miles back home.
A 50-mile flight is simply practice for Wilson’s homing pigeons. The birds can fly up to 500 miles in a day, finding their home no matter where they are released from.
‘It intrigues me,? says Wilson, whose father and grandfather both raced pigeons. ‘I will never get over the uniqueness of taking a little bird and letting it go 500 miles from home and it finds its way back.?
Wilson owns about 80-100 homing pigeons. They live in wood pens he designed and built himself, located in a barn on his property.
Wilson’s grandfather was from Scotland, where pigeon racing was popular. While he was growing up in Detroit, Wilson’s father had a flock of pigeons under the basement stairs before they moved to Brandon when he was 10. They raced the birds, winning trophies and money and, worth even more’bragging rights.
Before a race, racing club members register their birds and a special band is placed on the legs of the pigeons. Birds are dropped off at the race starting point and distance is measured from that point to the pigeons? respective homes. Bands are dropped into a tamper-proof racing clock when the bird reaches home. The system is now computerized and will calculate distance and speed.
Wilson notes the birds are sprint race birds that weigh about a pound, mostly feather and muscle.
So, how do they find their way home?
Wilson says studies show homing pigeons navigate magnetically.
‘They have excellent sight and sense of smell,? he said, but adds that fog is bad on pigeons and he has had birds come to his loft that are strays. ‘They have a natural affinity for their home. You teach them when they’re young and they gradually go longer distances.?
Wilson is not currently involved in racing his pigeons because of work demands, but enjoys having them and plans to resume the sport when he retires. He calls it an infectious hobby.
He notes the birds like to be together, but fight over territory. Pigeons mate for life and raise two babies at a time, sharing parenting duties equally.
Wilson special orders their food, which he calls fairly expensive. The birds are naturally resistant to disease and are adaptable to all temperatures. They live year-round in the barn, which gets cold in the winter, but the birds handle it well.
Pigeons typically live 10-15 years, but when they are being raced, their owners do not generally keep them that long, culling the flock for younger, more competitive birds.
‘You do develop an affinity for them,? says Wilson. ‘When I was a kid, several would eat out of my hand. Birds are hypersensitive. They’re used to having people around, but to gentle them, you have to spend a tremendous amount of time with them.?
The homing pigeons can fly about 65 miles per hour and a pigeon that is racing generally flies low, about treetop level. When starting out, they make a big circle to find direction and then go, with their main objective to get home, hopefully avoiding hawks, one of their predators.
‘Pigeons have natural ability, but the difference is training and conditioning,? said Wilson. ‘Racing is not as prevalent as it used to be, but it’s still a strong sport. It’s fascinating to me.?