This link gives you a very good overview of the latest arguments about whether Cryptochromes, which are sensitive to magnetic fields and exist in the eyes of birds, help with their navigation. All the great and good involved in this field are quoted. I personally do not think that the quantum effects in a Cryptochrome can exist in the “noisy” high temperature environment of the eye of a bird.
Richard Nissen
editor
In 1967 Eric Eastwood published a book called Radar Ornithology. Whilst research has moved on since then, this is a seminal book and gives really useful hard information on the migration habits of Passerines including thrushes, continental robins, warblers, starlings and woodcock. These birds make their migratory journeys to England in the autumn from the…
Nature’s Radar a paper by Tristan Gooley (one of our heroes) published in the Journal of Navigation in October 2012. Tristan and a friend set out in a little boat to navigate from Kirkwall on the North of Ockney via the Faroes over the top of Iceland to Reykjavik. Please see http://www.naturalnavigator.com/nature’s_radar.pdf for the full paper. The…
Atchoi, E., Mitkus, M., Vitta, P., Machado, B., Rocha, M., Juliano, M., Bried, J. & Rodríguez, A. 2023 Ontogenetic exposure to light influences seabird vulnerability to light pollution. Journal of Experimental Biology 226. doi: 10.1242/jeb.245126. Atchoi 2023 (no pdf) Light pollution critically affects the fledglings of burrow-nesting seabirds, leading to massive mortality events. The successful management of this pollutant depends…
Intro This piece has been forwarded to me by one of our editors: Simon Raggett. He gives us the quantum twist. You will also find much written here on the subject of avian navigation based around gravity from our editor Antonio Nafarrate, who has been in communication with the authors of this piece. Please follow…
Cuckoo Migration is one of the great mysteries and to date there is still no agreement on how Cuckoos find their way to the Congo for the winter starting from different locations in Europe. The team at Copenhagen University under Prof Kasper Thorup have been able to tag fledgling cuckoos to follow their migration….
Professor Kate Jeffery of University College London gave the annual address to the Royal Institute of Navigation (RIN) this year (2014). This article published in RIN’s Navigation News is, for me, a seminal step forward in describing the parameters of animal navigation and building a structure to delve deeper into how navigation might work. Her idea that…