Abstract

The star compass of birds, as well as the sun compass, is not innate. To possess either of them, the birds have to observe the rotating sky and determine its' center of rotation (in the star compass case) or the sun's movement (in the sun compass). Young birds are believed to learn how to use the star compass before their first migration, even though the evidence of this is lacking. Here, we test whether hand-raised Pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca) which had not established the star compass prior to their first autumn migration can gain it later in their ontogeny, in spring. We also attempted to examine if the observation of diurnal celestial cues (the sun and the polarized light) prior to autumn migration would affect the process of the star compass learning in spring. When tested in the vertical magnetic field under the natural starry sky, the group of birds which observed the stars in spring as the first celestial cues could choose the migratory direction. In contrast, the birds, which had never seen the stars, were not able to use the nightly celestial cues in the vertical magnetic field. However, the group of birds which had seen the daytime celestial cues till autumn and the stars at spring was disoriented, although this might be due to the small sample size. Our data suggest the possibility that the star compass may be learned in spring and emphasize the necessity for the further research in the interaction of celestial compasses.

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