ReviewJournal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology2015
Cues indicating location in pigeon navigation.
Review in Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed.
- Distant Landmarks Used for Navigation by Homing Pigeons.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Hippocampal LFP Responses during Pigeon Homing Flight in Outdoors.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Cumulative route improvements spontaneously emerge in artificial navigators even in the absence of sophisticated communication or thought.PLoS biology · 2024Article
- Enhanced Hippocampus-Nidopallium Caudolaterale Interaction in Visual-Spatial Associative Learning of Pigeons.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Article
- Comprehensive Transcriptomic and Metabolomic Analysis Revealed the Functional Differences in Pigeon Lactation between Male and Female during the Reproductive Cycle.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
- Magnetic maps in animal navigation.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2022Review
- The discovery of the use of magnetic navigational information.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2022Review
- Waterfall low-frequency vibrations and infrasound: implications for avian migration and hazard detection.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2021Review
- Einstein, von Frisch and the honeybee: a historical letter comes to light.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2021Review
- A reinterpretation of "Homing pigeons' flight over and under low stratus" based on atmospheric propagation modeling of infrasonic navigational cues.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2019Article
- Behavioural traits of individual homing pigeons, Columba livia f. domestica, in their homing flights.PloS one · 2018Article
- Marine biorhythms: bridging chronobiology and ecology.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2017Article
- Pigeonetics takes flight: Evolution, development, and genetics of intraspecific variation.Developmental biology · 2017Review
- Navigation.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2017Article
- Mathematical analysis of the homing flights of pigeons based on GPS tracks.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2016Article
- Age-Dependent Neurogenesis and Neuron Numbers within the Olfactory Bulb and Hippocampus of Homing Pigeons.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2016Article
- Collaboration in the competitive world of science: lessons to be learned from William T. Keeton.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Domesticated Rock Pigeons (Columba livia f. domestica) have been selected for returning home after being displaced. They appear to use many of the physical cue sources available in the natural environment for Map-and-Compass navigation. Two compass mechanisms that have been well documented in pigeons are a time-compensated sun compass and a magnetic inclination compass. Location-finding, or map, mechanisms have been more elusive. Visual landmarks, magnetic fields, odors, gravity and now also infrasound have been proposed as sources of information on location. Even in highly familiar locations, pigeons appear to neither use nor need landmarks and can even return to the loft while wearing frosted lenses. Direct and indirect evidence indicates magnetic field information influences pigeon navigation in ways that are consistent with magnetic map components. The role of odors is unclear; it might be motivational in nature rather than navigational. The influence of gravity must be further analyzed. Experiments with infrasound have been interpreted in the sense that they provide information on the home direction, but this hypothesis is inconsistent with the Map-and-Compass Model. All these factors appear to be components of a multifactorial system, with the pigeons being opportunistic, preferring those cues that prove most suitable in their home region. This has made understanding the roles of individual cues challenging.
Indexed as
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.