The Magnetic Compass as an Independent Alternative to the Sun Compass in the Homing Performance of Young Pigeons

Abstract

Since it was demonstrated that homing pigeons use the sun as a compass for their orientation whenever it is visible (Schmidt-Koenig 1961), many tests have been carried out and in 1976 a series of releases showed that sun compass orientation is learned rather than innate (Wiltschko et al. 1976). This learning process was studied and a first series of tests with young pigeons that had only seen the descending part of the sun’s arc, demonstrated that these pigeons did not use their sun compass when they were released in the early morning, i.e. they did not react to a 6-h shifting of their internal clock but were homeward orientated, while 6-h-shifted control birds, that knew the complete arc of the sun, showed a deflection in their mean vanishing direction from the home direction (R. Wiltschko and W. Wiltschko 1980).