Homing Pigeons, I've heard, can be taken hundreds of miles from home and turned loose, and will make their way home.
For a story, a young teen who lives in Pittsburgh takes his homing pigeons with him when his family moves to a suburban town north of New York City - and a year later he goes even farther upstate to release his pigeons. The question: Will those homing pigeons go home to the suburban town or will they fly back to Pittsburgh?
https://www.agriculture.com/family/living-the-country-life/how-to-raise-homing-pigeons
Training begins in the loft. Once homing pigeons are purchased, keep them in the enclosed building for about four weeks before letting them fly. This will help solidify the new loft as home. Next, open the loft door every day and let the birds take wing. They will most likely fly circles overhead as if getting their bearings, staying within a quarter mile and return to the loft often. After another four weeks, the new owners can begin the process of releasing homing pigeons farther and farther from home. Begin by releasing them within sight of their loft. Then, one mile away, followed by five miles, and so on until the desired distance is reached. The same method can be done in all directions from the coop. This progressive training allows the homing pigeons to not only get their bearings but to build up their endurance.
Seems like it would depend on how the homing pigeons are handled at the new location before being released.
Will those homing pigeons go home to the suburban town or will they fly back to Pittsburgh?
As DS mentioned, he needs to make sure they've had both time and training to recognize their new home loft. If so, then they'll go to the new home. If not, Pittsburgh.
And yes, they can handle the distances. That's how messages used to be delivered all the time. Just depending upon the importance of the message, you might send two, three, or four at once, just to make sure one gets through.
That's how messages used to be delivered all the time.
While it was quite fast – faster than a runner or rider - it was asynchronous, you could send messages only home and had to transport the pigeons out.
To send fast messages by pigeon fro Munich to Berlin and vice versa, you had to transport pigeons homed in Munich to Berlin and those homed in Berlin to Munich and after awhile let them flow back home with or without a message. And you had to repeat this with new pigeons often enough or they would mentally confusing or change their home location.
To transport a short message fast through enemy land the pigeon is the solution. You have to use more than one pigeon to overcome your messenger gets killed by birds of prey, but for an enemy it's easier to intercept human messengers.
HM.
That's how messages used to be delivered all the time.
And don't forget RFC 1149: Internet Protocol over Avian Carriers, which has been successfully implemented at least once, although there was high packet loss due to operator error and high latency due to avian traffic times.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_over_Avian_Carriers
And don't forget RFC 1149: Internet Protocol over Avian Carriers
The name needs another AC at the end somehow.