Taking an insect-inspired approach to bird navigation

Abstract

Navigation is an essential skill for many animals, and understanding how animal use environmental information, particularly visual information, to navigate has a long history in both ethology and psychology. In birds, the dominant approach for investigating navigation at small-scales comes from comparative psychology, which emphasizes the cognitive representations underpinning spatial memory. The majority of this work is based in the laboratory and it is unclear whether this context itself affects the information that birds learn and use when they search for a location. Data from hummingbirds suggests that birds in the wild might use visual information in quite a different manner. To reconcile these differences, here we propose a new approach to avian navigation, inspired by the sensory-driven study of navigation in insects. Using methods devised for studying the navigation of insects, it is possible to quantify the visual information available to navigating birds, and then to determine how this information influences those birds’ navigation decisions. Focusing on four areas that we consider characteristic of the insect navigation perspective, we discuss how this approach has shone light on the information insects use to navigate, and assess the prospects of taking a similar approach with birds. Although birds and insects differ in many ways, there is nothing in the insect-inspired approach of the kind we describe that means these methods need be restricted to insects. On the contrary, adopting such an approach could provide a fresh perspective on the well-studied question of how birds navigate through a variety of environments.

Indirect, referent control of motor actions underlies directional tuning of neurons

“…By analyzing the navigation of birds and insects (Pritchard and Healy 2018), one can also test that they specify a referent direction that in the presence of deflecting winds does not coincide with the actual flight direction. To test this suggestion, one can attach an insect to a motionless surface while blowing the wind to evoke rhythmical motion of the wings.…”

Hummingbirds modify their routes to avoid a poor location

“…Because 7 out 10 birds in the second phase of Experiment 3, when we lowered the concentration of the second flower, kept the origin of their trapline but reversed the direction in which they flew around the flowers, it seems plausible that these birds did just invert the direction. We do know, however, that wild hummingbirds learn the locations of flowers in relation to visual landmark and that movement vectors are thought to be used over long distances during migration (Pritchard & Healy, 2018). What information they use when moving between multiple locations is yet to be determined, but comparing the traplining behaviour of different taxa might be able to tell us something more about the type of information animals use when solving these multi-location problems.…”

X,Y, and Z: A bird's eye view on light pollution

“…Vandersteen et al stated that representative light measurements should include the horizon because it contains light stimuli in the direction of movement (Vandersteen et al, 2020 ). Given that air‐borne animals are not restricted to the nadir or horizontal view for orientation (El Jundi et al, 2015 ; Foster et al, 2018 ; Pritchard & Healy, 2018 ), high‐resolution full‐sphere photometric measurements are desirable (see Figure 2 ; Jechow et al, 2019 ; Vandersteen et al, 2020 ).…”