Pigeons (facts about them)

Im bored so here are some random ass pigeon facts off of the top of my head

• The fastest pigeon flight speed was clocked at about 90-93 MPH
• There are more domestic breeds of pigeon than there are domestic breeds of dogs. (300+ breeds of domestic pigeons)
• There are some breeds of pigeons that have beaks that are too small to feed their own young. 
• Homing Pigeons were important to soldiers during the world wars in delivering messages.
• One of the better known messenger pigeons during was named Cher Ami (Dear friend in French). He delivered a message that saved 200 American lives during WWI.
• Cher Ami was registered as a black check cock. When the taxidermist who worked on Cher Ami got him to stuff him they found out that Cher Ami was actually a hen
• Cher Ami had a wing shot, a leg blown off, and was blinded but still managed to deliver her message. (the message was hanging on the blown off leg by a tendon)
• Pigeons only lay 2 eggs per clutch and by the time the first set of offspring is ready to leave the nest, the parents already have another clutch of eggs that they are sitting on. 
• Domestic pigeons are identified with leg bands that they are given at 2 weeks of age. These bands tell what club they belong to, a number, and a year. (Example: One of my homing pigeon bands reads: AU 2017 NWM 578. AU stands for the American Racing Pigeon Union)
• A friend of mine entered a bird in a race from Topeka Kansas to Ashland Wisconsin (roughly 541.81 air miles straight shot) Bird made it home in about 9 hours averaging about 60 MPH. Won first place in the club for that race.
• The Latin name for a pigeon is Columbidae 
• White "doves" that are released at funerals, weddings, and other special occasions are actually just white homing pigeons. 
• Feral pigeons that we see today are descendants of the Rock Dove, or, Columba livia.
• Pigeons bob their heads because they have monocular vision. Doing this helps with depth perception _{Maybe if I do this it will help with my depth perception}
  
  
• Pigeons mate for life and can reproduce up to 8 times a year (thats a shit load of pigeons)
  
  
• No one actually knows for sure how pigeons navigate
  
  
• Mike Tyson absolutely loves pigeons and his first fight was actually with a kid that killed one of his pigeons. So naturally Tyson beat the ever loving shit out of that kid (i would to if someone were to fuck with my birds)
  
  
  

Heres a picture of a few of my pigeons in case anyone wants to see. I have 21 pigeons in total. The lean blue pigeon is a Homing pigeon, she is directly out of parents from Belgium. her parents are out of a very well known loft and she has an excellent background and according to her pedigree has had a great record of producing fantastic offspring. The big fat pigeons are called Modenas. I dont have any background info on those guys but theyre from a pretty good breeder here in Wisconsin.