How were birds (pigeons, ravens, etc.) trained to deliver messages back in the day?
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I know im way too late to the party but as someone who raises and competes with homing pigeons i feel like i can give a pretty good answer. All pigeons are born with a homing instinct, hence the name. Unlike some answers said, they do need to be trained to be able to find their home. You cant just take a 6 month old pigeon basically any distance at all and expect it to come back home, the bird has to be trained and know where its home/source of food is. When i raise a flock of my young birds i always have to start by simply letting them out to explore around the house. Once they start flying after a few times out you have to be very patient with them and let them out dozens of times until they stay in the air for a couple hours and eventually start flying further and further away from home and coming back home when they are done. After they master that, thats when you can start boxing them and taking them further and further away. I usually start by taking them 1,3,5,7,10,15,20,30 etc. miles from the house. A well trained pigeon will return home from 500 miles or more. And no there is no definitive proven answer how exactly they are able to do that.
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