How Do Homing Pigeons Know Where To Go?

[sacha.86]

[boxtops]

Radar

[boxtops]

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080619114523AAWO3iG

[FredPuli43]

Amusingly, there is yet another method employed. The BBC sent a reporter, briefed with all the science, to a very experienced pigeon fancier. The man, asked about the sun, magnetite and the rest, laconically pointed to some of his birds homing and said "They always turn left at the traffic lights at the end of the by-pass". So the birds use visual clues once they know the route :)

[heathfield]

One of nature's mysteries. Some evidence has been found that the Earth's magnetic field plays a part. Going home is one thing, but much stranger still is that the Italian Navy during WWII used homing pigeons (apparently successfully) to carry messages between warships which were at sea. British pigeons were also used to carry messages back and forth between ships and shore. Figure out how they managed to do that!!
Don't forget that other creature can do a similar kind of thing. There are countless reports of animals that have travelled hundreds of miles to meet up with their owners who have moved home without them. Weird, or what?

[sacha.86]

God is Glourious.
Right so say my sister had homing pigeons and I took one home.. I could then send her a message by letting the pigeon fly 'home'. but if I had my own homing pigeons how do I send them to the designated destination? My five yr old would like to know but I don't understand it well enough to explain it to him