The best overview of the current ideas on Avian (bird) navigation, April 2012

By Professor Gary Ritchison of the University Works at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond Ky, USA. His long-term interests have been in avian mating strategies, specifically examining factors that influence mate choice (and choice of extra-pair partners) by female songbirds and avian vocal behaviour (particularly the functions of song), the ecology and behaviour of grassland birds, raptor behaviour and ecology and, recently, factors influencing the provisioning behaviour of male and female Eastern Phoebes.

http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/nav_orient.htm#MC

Editor’s note
This is a fantastic piece of work. It’s a superb overview of the current academic thinking on the subject of bird navigation. We at animalnav.org do not necessarily agree with all of this, so we are working on establishing what is and is not, in our opinion, correct. This information is the basis of all our effots to see if we can find another theory that is simple that encompasses this work and the experiments that validate it.

We are privileged that Professor Ritcheson has agreed to let us post his work.

Richard Nissen
Editor