PARIS - These days, French military pigeon number 193-529 is no longer needed to carry tiny messages during war-time communication blackouts.
But the racing bird serves as a reminder of the brave service of its predecessors in World Wars I and II, and the 1870 siege of Paris.
Inside Europe's last military pigeon loft, Sergeant Sylvain cradled 193-529, an alert feathered athlete with an iridescent green neck.
"He's a carrier pigeon, like the ones who served in World Wars I and II," said Sylvain, withholding his surname for security purposes.
"But today he races," added the member of the armed forces, whose grandfather was also a pigeon fancier.
In Mont Valerien outside Paris, Sylvain flits between dovecotes, tending to some 200 pigeons -- cleaning their shelters and making sure they have enough to eat.
These days, they only use their navigating skills when they are released during competitions, military ceremonies, or demonstrations for visitors, he said.
Patriotic Parisians donated more than 300 pigeons to the war effort, which were loaded into the wicker baskets of hot-air balloons and transported southwards to the city of Tours.
Upon arrival, they were fitted with small tubes containing 3 to 4cm of microfilm on which minute messages had been inscribed, called "pigeongrams".
They were then released as close to the capital as possible so they could carry them back inside.
Only around 50 pigeons made it.
Parisians who found the pigeons then placed the microfilm between sheets of glass and, using a magic lantern -- an early type of image projector, projected it onto a large screen to read it.
They transcribed the contents and delivered the message to its intended recipient.
During the two world wars, pigeons were used again when "modern means of communication reached their limits", such as "bombardments ripping down telephone lines", Sylvain said.
During World War II, a French pigeon helped alert Allies that six German U-boats were undergoing maintenance in the French port of Bordeaux, leading to aerial raids that destroyed four of them, Sylvain said.
The pigeon, nicknamed "Maquisard" like some members of the French Resistance, received an award.
The French military last relied on homing pigeons during the war in Algeria from 1954 to 1962 that led to the North African country's independence from France.