THEY call it the "Millionaires' Club": a shed at Castle Hill Showground, pigeon charts on the walls, nothing flash.

Inside are lawyers, developers, architects. All have channelled fortunes into pigeon racing, travelling overseas to chase bloodlines and building lofts to rival houses.

"It's like a poor man's racehorse," said Gary Young, a club member and owner of a building company. "But it's not all poor men any more."

These are people once referred to as the Howard aspirationals, who ha...

One of Nature's most fascinating mysteries is how pigeons find their way home over vast distances.
No matter how far away they are taken, they almost always return to their lofts.
Now German scientists believe they have discovered how the birds do it. Research has revealed that tiny iron structures in their beaks allow them to analyse the earth's magnetic field - much like a compass.
Through the signals picked up, the birds can work out where they are and set out on the best course home.
As w...

Migrating birds may "see" Earth's magnetic field. Migrating birds, it seems, can "see" Earth's magnetic field which they use as a compass to guide them around the globe.
Specialised neurons in the eye, sensitive to magnetic direction, have been shown for the first time to connect via a specific brain pathway to an area in the forebrain of birds responsible for vision, German researchers said on Wednesday.
Scientists have known for many years, from behavioural experiments, that birds use an int...