Migratory Birds Use Head Scans to Detect the Direction of the Earth's Magnetic Field
@article{Mouritsen2004MigratoryBU, title={Migratory Birds Use Head Scans to Detect the Direction of the Earth's Magnetic Field}, author={Henrik Mouritsen and Gesa Feenders and Miriam Liedvogel and Wiebke Kropp}, journal={Current Biology}, year={2004}, volume={14}, pages={1946-1949} }
75 Citations
Orientation in migratory birds: orientation mechanisms and their underlying neurobiological background
- Biology, Psychology
- 2006
Analysis of brain neuronal activity identified movement-related brain areas that form a motor-pathway being parallel to the known vocal pathway in night-migratory birds, which may be an integration area of magnetic compass information involving a light-mediated compass system.
A Visual Pathway Links Brain Structures Active during Magnetic Compass Orientation in Migratory Birds
- BiologyPloS one
- 2007
These findings strongly support the hypothesis that migratory birds use their visual system to perceive the reference compass direction of the geomagnetic field and thatigratory birds “see” thereference compass direction provided by the geOMagnetic field.
Migratory blackcaps tested in Emlen funnels can orient at 85 degrees but not at 88 degrees magnetic inclination
- GeologyJournal of Experimental Biology
- 2015
The results show that blackcaps are able to orient in an Earth's strength magnetic field with inclination angles of 67 and 85 deg, but fail to Orient in a field with 88 deg inclination, which suggests that the steepest inclination angle enabling magnetic compass orientation in migratory blackcaps tested in Emlen funnels lies between 85 and 88 deg.
Equatorial sandhoppers use body scans to detect the earth’s magnetic field
- Environmental ScienceJournal of Comparative Physiology A
- 2005
Like head scans in birds, body scans seem to be used by equatorial sandhoppers to detect the magnetic symmetry plane.
On the use of magnets to disrupt the physiological compass of birds.
- PhysicsPhysical biology
- 2006
It is shown that the artificial field through an attached magnet will quickly disrupt the birds' ability to distinguish pole-ward from equator-ward headings, but that much stronger fields are necessary to disrupt their ability to detect the magnetic axis.
Global indoor self-localization based on the ambient magnetic field
- PhysicsRobotics Auton. Syst.
- 2009
Magnetoreception in an Avian Brain in Part Mediated by Inner Ear Lagena
- BiologyCurrent Biology
- 2011
Night-Migratory Songbirds Possess a Magnetic Compass in Both Eyes
- BiologyPloS one
- 2012
It is shown that European robins having only their left eye open can orient in their seasonally appropriate direction both during autumn and spring, and that the capability to use the magnetic compass does not depend on monocular learning or intraocular transfer as it is already present in the first tests of the birds with only one eye open.
References
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Magnetic orientation in birds
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The magnetic field of the earth is an omnipresent, reliable source of orientational information, and birds from the northern and southern hemisphere may rely on the same migratory programme, while the role of magnetic parameters in the multifactorial navigational system is poorly understood.
Resonance effects indicate a radical-pair mechanism for avian magnetic compass
- Physics, GeologyNature
- 2004
It is shown that oscillating magnetic fields disrupt the magnetic orientation behaviour of migratory birds, and results are consistent with a resonance effect on singlet–triplet transitions and suggest a magnetic compass based on a radical-pair mechanism.
Cryptochromes and neuronal-activity markers colocalize in the retina of migratory birds during magnetic orientation.
- BiologyProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- 2004
It is shown that at least one CRy1 and one CRY2 exist in the retina of migratory garden warblers and that garden-warbler CRY1 (gwCRY1) is cytosolic, well placed to possibly be the primary magnetic-sensory molecule required for light-mediated magnetoreception.
Waved albatrosses can navigate with strong magnets attached to their head
- BiologyJournal of Experimental Biology
- 2003
Satellite telemetry was used to follow free-flying albatrosses after manipulating magnetic orientation cues by attaching magnets to strategic places on the birds' heads, and birds subjected to the three treatments did not differ in the routes flown or in the duration and speed of the trips.
Migrating Songbirds Recalibrate Their Magnetic Compass Daily from Twilight Cues
- PhysicsScience
- 2004
It is suggested that birds orient with a magnetic compass calibrated daily from twilight cues, which could explain how birds cross the magnetic equator and deal with declination.
Red light disrupts magnetic orientation of migratory birds
- BiologyNature
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The first orientation tests on migratory birds under light of different wavelengths are reported; the results suggest a light-dependent process that appears to differ from that reported in newts.
Magnetic Orientation in Animals
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This text details animal orientation with the help of information from the geomagnetic field. It reviews the magnetic effects on spatial behaviour in the various groups of the animal kingdom from…
Structure and function of the vertebrate magnetic sense
- BiologyNature
- 1997
The key components of a magnetic sense underpinning this navigational ability in a single species, the rainbow trout are described and an area in the nose of the trout where candidate magnetoreceptor cells are located is identified.
Magnetic Compass of European Robins
- Geology, PhysicsScience
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The magnetic compass of European robins does not use the polarity of the magnetic field for detecting the north direction, so birds take the direction on the magnetic north-south axis for "north" where field lines and gravity vector form the smaller angle.