Humans don’t have the monopoly on motion sickness. Many species can become ill from travelling in a car, something that I never really thought about before – so when my semi-blind pet pigeon, Georgie, started to throw up during car journeys, I was a bit surprised. My poor girl – it must be worst for her since her vision is blurred already from her scarred eyes. (Read up on the causes of motion sickness: http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Motion-sickness/Pages/Causes.aspx).
Elmo, on the other hand, is a trouper in the car. Nothing in the car fazed him. When we drove down to Cornwall (a 6 hour journey for us) Elmo was quite content in his travel cage – eating, sleeping and cooing happily. No motion sickness for him. (We didn’t take Georgie with us because we already knew she didn’t like travelling. She had to stay with a pet sitter.)
There doesn’t seem to be much online about motion sickness in birds – only the usual instructions on slowly introducing longer car journeys to help the bird get used to the motion (which I don’t think would work with Georgie because she vomits after 10 minutes of being in a moving car) – and some people suggest giving ginger or camomile tea to sooth the gut. I haven’t tried those on Georgie yet since we haven’t had the need to take her anywhere lately, but one day I’d like to take her on holiday with us so we need to have a plan in order.
I would really appreciate hearing your experiences with motion sickness in birds – particularly pigeons – and if you know more about the science behind it all, please let me know! 
Elmo in his travel cage
Georgie hops into my case when I'm packing
aww..well i think its best to cover it up in something dark. if its nothing but dark inside the bird wouldn’t do anything actually but just sit and wait until it comes off. im sure georgie will be just fine
Hi Erik, thanks for your comment. Someone else also suggested covering Georgie so she’s in the dark (since motion sickness has got to do with sight and movement and not being able to see might stop the sickness). We will definitely try this next time!
We have 2 dogs and a pet pigeon that I travel with alot. I just let her be free in the car with the dogs. She likes to sit on the back of my headrest while I’m driving and look out the window. Maybe if Georgie were free in the car, she could walk around and look out the window and not feel sick.
Hi Diane, thanks for your comment. Unfortunately, Georgie is semi-blind and cannot see properly (she’s got a lot of scarring on her eyes). We cannot have her free in the car because of her disability. Otherwise we may have tried your suggestion.
Hope you find a cure – our disabled ex-racing pigeon (broken shoulder and wing, can’t fly but boy can she run!) came on a ride with us and was travel sick too. She was most dejected until she came home! We’d like to take her with us on holiday, too, when we can, so hope there’s some good suggestions. I get travel sick too, so we make a great pair…..! Keep up the good work, you are inspirational.
Hi Fiona, I will definitely share any remedies that work for motion sickness if I come across them.