Please do not take and use for commercial purposes. In a world where electronics, computers and the commonplace transmission of data from one corner of the world to the other at lightning speeds, the racing pigeon and its keeper might seem very out of place, but soft, there is a connection between the two. In very much a layman's terms, our pigeons have both friend and enemy in Solar Radiation. That is the electrical energy emitted by the sun and on which all life depends. Without its warmth, and the effects it has on the very existence of all living things, we would be a dead spore in space, all of us, the world, its seas and land masses, just so much stodge.
Pigeons rely on the sun to navigate.
It is perhaps the mainstay of their ability to discover their location in relation to their homes, for by their own instinctive ability they do in mere seconds what we allegedly sophisticated human beings take several million pounds worth of electronic apparatus to do, that is to locate themselves on the surface of the planet to an astonishingly accurate degree. Mother Nature decreed that the pigeon should be a granivorous creature, i.e. one that eats grains as opposed to flies, fish, fruits or other sources of sustenance. Food does not fly, or swim into its daily orbit, so the bird must go out and forage for it, further and further afield as it cleans up the area round its home. If it tried to bring those grains back one at a time to feed its young, it would perish in short order, so a thoughtful Mother Nature supplied the bird with a crop which it fills with grain, and then returns by its own unique system of navigation to its home location. To do that it has to be a good navigator.