Pigeons are among the most naturally gifted navigators in the animal kingdom. And while we've only recently begun to shed light on why this is, humans have been using pigeon's innate homing abilities to our advantage for ages - and often in very unusual ways.

Pigeons just don't get the same love that canaries, blue jays, and chickadees get. To rehabilitate the images of these vermin birds, artists Julian Charriere and Julius Von Bismarck decided to give them a makeover, creating a machine that draps pigeons and dyes them a wide variety of colors.

We're still working on understad how animals detect magnetic fields, but what's going on in their brains to make sense of it all? Researchers have discovered the part of pigeon's brain that can process magnetic signals they detect, and it's enough to direct them travelling across the globe.

One of the theories for the incredible navigational skills of birds is that they can sense magnetic fields through the magnetite in their beaks — essentially giving them a built-in compass. It's one of the more pervasive explanations, but it looks like it might not be true, at least for pigeons.

Pigeons already spread disease and poop through their urban homes, but what if we had to worry about flocks of pigeons armed with miniature cameras, watching our every move from overhead? In the early 20th century, one hobbyist photographer equipped the rats of the sky with just such cameras.

If you're a city dweller, you see these dirty little birds hopping around every day — might as well know why they look the way they do! Find out what makes pigeon throats shine, and how pigeons compare to other iridescent birds.

Are humans the only animals that can appreciate beauty? Stories about painting elephants and chimps have convinced some that we are not the only species with a developed sense of the aesthetic. But doubts remain regarding whether these animals are truly creating art or simply trained performers. A Japanese scientist…

Without further ado, from the same bioastronautics film that brought us zero gravity cats ricocheting through a high-altitude jet, here are pigeons desperately trying to find their way around weightlessness. Poor birds. [Airboyd]

According to data recorders strapped to pigeons' heads, pigeon migration may not be too different from human navigation: the birds use landmarks to navigate, they pay more attention when in cities, and they even recognize other pigeon colonies.