Fastest time to fly 1,000 miles by a racing pigeon

The fastest time to fly 1,000 miles by a racing pigeon is 43 hours 56 minutes, by The Conqueror, bred and raced by Allan Raeside (UK). The red chequer cock homed 1,010 miles (1,625 km) to Irvine in Strathclyde, Scotland, from northeast Spain in the 1975 Palamós Race.

Allan Raeside was a member of the Irvine Newtown Homing Society. His three-year-old star bird, The Conqueror, was released from Palamós on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees at 6.15 am (UK time) on Friday 27 June and arrived at his loft in Irvine at 4 pm on the Sunday, beating the previous record of 5 days 5.5 hours. "I never expected to see the bird back so soon," he said. "I don't think it stopped to eat." The Conqueror was retired after its epic journey. Allan passed away on 25 May 2018 at the age of 82.

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