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Showing posts from April, 2020

Bird Migration – Navigation

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Coming into spring, with the first few Swifts arriving in the UK in the last week, this seems like an opportune moment to discuss how birds navigate in order to migrate. Whilst the feat of a tiny Willow Warbler travelling 12,000 km (in the case of  Phylloscopus trochilus yakutensis ) is humbling and physiologically incredible in its own right, migration becomes even more fascinating when you consider how the birds navigate, without the luxury of GPS, Google Maps and all the other tools humans need to find their way around. It is thought that some birds use the Sun to navigate whilst there is also evidence that points to Homing Pigeons using olfactory cues to navigate, building up a local “map” based on odours at each location. However, we can’t explain navigation without considering the cognitive abilities of birds and their ability to build mental maps. Perhaps the most remarkable way this is done is using the Earth’s magnetic field. Juvenile birds of some species on their first m