Homing pigeons as a model for avian navigation?

Abstract

The findings on the navigational mechanisms of homing pigeons and the available data on those of wild birds, in particular migrants, are compared. There are important parallels in the use of the magnetic field and the sun for directional orientation. Also the findings on the navigational ‘map’, its preferred use by experienced birds and the strategy of using route information to acquire the necessary knowledge to establish the ‘map’, obtained in pigeons studies, can probably be generalized to wild birds and migrants in their home region. It seems that birds share a common navigational system. Special development of migratory birds, however, is the innate migration program that enables young first‐time migrants to reach their still unknown wintering area.

Requiem for a heavyweight – can anything more be learned from homing pigeons about the sensory and spatial-representational basis of avian navigation?

“…The first is the elusive and seemingly enduring question of whether something in addition to olfaction can support the homing pigeon navigational map. Here, one must acknowledge that there is tantalizing evidence that the Earth's magnetic field, in addition to supporting the magnetic compass, can also support a geomagnetic map (Dennis et al, 2007;Wiltschko et al, 2010;Schiffner et al, 2011;Wiltschko and Wiltschko, 2017a). The evidence has prompted the idea of a navigational map that is multi-modal in nature (see Glossary; e.g.…”

“…The evidence has prompted the idea of a navigational map that is multi-modal in nature (see Glossary; e.g. Wiltschko and Wiltschko, 2017a), which certainly has an intuitive appeal, and there is no reason why the multi-modality should be limited to olfaction and geomagnetism (see Hagstrum, 2000). Indeed, looking broadly at homing pigeon navigation, the system is necessarily multi-modal with, minimally, an olfactory navigational map operational from distant, unfamiliar sites and a principally visual familiar landmark/landscape map closer to home.…”

“…Beginning in the 1950s, laboratories in the United Kingdom (Matthews, 1951) and Germany (Kramer, 1957) established the domesticated homing pigeon as the premier model for investigating the sensory basis and map-like properties of avian navigation. This continued up to the end of the 20th century while homing pigeon research flourished under the leadership of such notable scientists as William Keeton, Floriano Papi, Klaus Schmidt-Koenig, Charles Walcott, Hans Walraff, and Roswitha and Wolfgang Wiltschko, whose research teams and large-scale pigeon-loft operations produced an enormous volume of data and influential papers (see Wallraff, 2005;Gagliardo, 2013;Wiltschko and Wiltschko, 2017a).…”

transatlantic Movement of Domestic PIGEONS Columba livia domestica

“…One of the remarkable navigational abilities in Domestic Pigeons is the capacity to track reference points and mapping the geographical surface, which allow Domestic Pigeons to return to their home lofts from distant and unfamiliar sites (Wiltschko & Wiltschko 2017). These navigational abilities are mainly oriented by the Earth's magnetic field, although many factors such as storms, magnetic anomalies, and the initial orientation behavior seem to interfere on the precision of navigation (Dennis et al 2007).…”

Effects of 3 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging exposure on the behavior and orientation of homing pigeons Columba livia domestica

“…In this study, we aimed to evaluate the extent to which a short exposure to powerful magnetic fields, such as the ones used in clinical MR, can induce after-effects on normal orientation behavior. The homing pigeon ( Columba livia domestica ) was selected as a model species as they use the geomagnetic field for orientation with a highly predictable homing behavior [ 18 , 19 ].…”