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Honey bees orient to the earth's magnetic field. This ability may be associated with a region of transversely oriented magnetic material in the front of the abdomen. The magnetic moment apparently develops in the pupal state and persists in the adults.

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Whereas higher vertebrates are able to construct a mental "map" of their home area and so use their knowledge of the spatial relations between landmarks to navigate along novel routes, invertebrates have been thought able to use landmarks in their navigation only as a familiar, route-specific series. Experiments with honey bees show that these insects have and use landmark maps thus invalidating this presumed invertebrate-vertebrate dichotomy.

Research on pigeon homing suggests that magnetic field information is used for orientation. The ability of pigeons to sense magnetic fields may be associated with a small, unilateral structure between the brain and the skull which contains magnetic in what appears to be single domains.