How do birds determine their migration direction? Scientists have solved the mystery

Bird navigation has interested scientists for years. How is it possible that they can cover enormous distances, yet always find their nests and survive in one place for years? It turns out that they use complex navigation systems and an entire arsenal of senses.

Scientists have figured out bird navigation

We know that birds use different signals to maintain their migration direction , Miriam Liedvogel, director of the Institute of Bird Research in Germany, told Live Science.

The researcher adds that some of the methods used by birds are well known to humanity, but some of the tactics remain outside the realm of human reasoning. Let's start with the former. Birds have excellently developed eyesight and sense of smell. These are the senses that allow them to find their way during migration. Scientists claim that birds remember characteristic points on their flight paths, such as rivers or mountain ranges. It is possible that they may also be guided by the smell of plants characteristic of a given region.

Although it seems unlikely that birds navigate using their nostrils, experiments on Mediterranean shearwaters have shown that when their nasal passages were blocked, the birds still navigated well over land, but became disoriented over water, where landmarks were difficult to identify.

Birds Use Compasses? Some Surprise Even Astronomers

A bird navigation system that seems too advanced for animals is the use of the sun compass. Migratory birds know perfectly well where the sun is in the sky and are able to determine the direction of their flights based on the time of day and circadian rhythm. This is indicated by subsequent experiments that have shown that disrupting the birds' circadian rhythm with artificial light prevents them from navigating accurately.

But what about birds that migrate at night? Here's another interesting fact - birds are excellent astronomers. They are able to pinpoint their location based on the position of the stars. It is possible that we learned navigating to the North Star, a method that humans have been using for thousands of years, from our avian friends.

But what if, due to weather conditions, birds cannot see either the stars or the sun? Cloud cover does not cause birds to give up flying. Then they use another sense, called by scientists "magnetoreception". It allows birds to read the magnetic fields generated by the Earth, which allows them to navigate. However, scientists know relatively little about this unusual sense. They claim that birds do not use only one way of navigation, but combine them all into a complex system, which can be called "bird GPS". Practice shows that this one is extremely accurate.

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