This link is important as it gives you more information on the work done by David Keays et al, which proved that the magnetite particle array supposed to exist in the upper beak, creates a magnetic compass response mechanism for birds, does not exist.
As this article suggests the other candidate for magnetic response is a quantum effect in the cryptochromes in the birds eyes.
Richard Nissen
Editor
Questions by Richard Nissen. Replies by David Higgins – President of the Royal Pigeon Racing Association. If pigeons are not trained do pigeons roam far from their lofts? Probably no more than a mile. Do you think that homing into the loft when it is near by is done using geographical features such as roads…
There is a lot of work going on in the navigation field. All the researchers in this field are now clear that navigation takes place in the sub-conscious. I made the mistake of thinking that native peoples who seemed to navigate perfectly without any aids could tell me how they did it, but language is…
Intro to the paper >>>> This paper is important as it begins to investigate a genetic basis to animal navigation and focuses on finding markers to get a grip on understanding the underlying genetic architecture of migration Cross-breeding experiments were carried out in the 80/90s by Peter Berthold and his team at the Max Planck Centre in Seewiesen….
Please find this interesting link to important work on Cuckoos done by Kasper Thorup and his team in Denmark. http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0168940 They were able to tag and therefore track fledgling cuckoos. This work is very important as the major question for us is, how does a fledgling cuckoo find its way to its wintering grounds in…
For those of us following the BTO satellite tagged Cuckoos, we can see Spring is well on its way – three birds have already left their winter locations in the Congo rainforest and are at their stopover sites in West Africa. Later this month, rested and loaded with the fat that will fuel their journeys, they will…
Antonio Nafarrate, one of our associate editors has sent his latest thinking: I am very interested in how so much of what he presents here fits with other pieces in our puzzle to understand how Animal Navigation might work Richard Nissen editor I have some new ideas that may connect my Animal Navigation Model with…
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