New American Carrier Pigeon and The Wild Crow

Pigeons, often known as rock doves, are gentle, plump, small-billed birds with a skin saddle (cere) between the bill and forehead, that live commonly within human settlements, eating the remains of food, specially bread and grain, left behind by the city inhabitants. Pigeons are often domesticated by people and as a result Coops can often be found in front of certain homes within a settlement and NPCs can often be seen feeding them and their irradiated variations.
But did you know that in certain parts of New America, hurting a pigeon in certain Settlements is actually considered a crime?
The utility of the pigeon as a messanger bird, was re-discovered by many civilizations dotted across New America, most recently within the Free-States surrounding Boston. This is because with good weather and wind on their side, a healthy strong pigeon, is known for its ability to find its way home over extremely long distances, and can carry a note as much as 800 miles in a day.
Because of their natural homing abilities, the pigeons were transported to a destination in cages, where they would be attached with messages, then the pigeon would naturally fly back to its home where the recipient could read the message. Pigeons are also easy to train to fly from one place to another by associating each place with food, or indeed a home base while they travel, and have never been known to get lost if they have imprinted on a location. As a result most cities have vast rookeries with pigeons linked from their home and some place throughout the known world.
In addition to this, They are often fitted with backpacks or leg braces to deliver messages and armor on their necks and heads to protect them from hawk or other predatory bird attacks. Even with the advent of wireless communication and radio’s, in certain particular applications pigeons provide the only method of communication- the diligence, endurance, and utility of these birds has them held in extremely high esteem in many locations, much like how it was back in the old days when they were considered companions and friend’s and not abandoned to the cities where they would soon be deemed a nuisance or Street Rats and loathed by the populations.
Because of this renewing of old relations, to kill or brutalize one of these birds is strictly considered to be taboo, and even considered a war crime in certain places, as most pigeons will carry notes regarding the surrender or declaration of war, or the death of someone of High Esteem.
However despite their usefulness they are often plagued with stiff competition by other birds when it comes to who is the best messenger, with one such bird being the Crow.

Curious birds with exuberant black plumage, Crows are docile and fearless animals, enjoying much like the pigeon living close to human civilizations, for their own benefit, feeding on leftovers leftover by their inhabitants. These bird’s have coexisted with humanity for thousands of years; being plentiful in some areas in pre-war times, that humans regarded them once as pests. Often animal’s with a preference for the cloudy cold climates, they are often found populating mainly the cities at the north of New America, building their nests, and resting, on roofs and other tall structures. They also populate fog-filled marshes, in search of food, especially any eventual carcass, be it animal or person.
These avian’s have an omnivorous diet, which contributes to their evolutionary success as a species. They can be immensely opportunistic and versatile when looking for sources of food - feeding on insects, carrion, berries, cereal grains, small animals, food waste, and fruit. These bird’s are also incredibly intelligent, which can be seen thanks to some very notable feats of problem-solving. In New America, Crow seem to have survived the nuclear conflict mostly untouched by the twisted and mutating effects of radiation, carrying on with their lives as usual - only presumably with much more carrion to choose from.
In spite of their increased survival against the odds, during the reign of the institute, the crow population around the Boston Commonwealth saw a substantial drop in it’s numbers. This was because of discriminate culling by the residents in the fear that any or all crow’s were “watchers”, synthetic animals made by the institute to spy on the surface world.
As a result, even year’s after the destruction of the institute, Crow’s are still very untrusted animals around certain parts of the Commonwealth, often finding themselves poisoned or shot on numerous occasions. Despite this however, the crow still stands as a subject of much of the art, literature, folklore, and mythology throughout much of the land’s surrounding Boston.
Despite them not being as protected as Carrier Pigeons, with their Intelligence, and loyalty and ability to be domesticated, there has often been debate on whether or not they make better messenger birds then Carrier Pigeons, despite the fact Carrier pigeons are more widely used then Crow’s are, with only a select few area's using Crows as carrier animals.