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Migratory navigation in birds: new opportunities in an era of fast-developing tracking technology

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Author

  • Tim Guilford
  • Susanne Åkesson
  • Anna Gagliardo
  • Richard A. Holland
  • Henrik Mouritsen
  • Rachel Muheim
  • Roswitha Wiltschko
  • Wolfgang Wiltschko
  • Verner P. Bingman

Summary, in English

Birds have remained the dominant model for studying the mechanisms of animal navigation for decades, with much of what has been discovered coming from laboratory studies or model systems. The miniaturisation of tracking technology in recent years now promises opportunities for studying navigation during migration itself (migratory navigation) on an unprecedented scale. Even if migration tracking studies are principally being designed for other purposes, we argue that attention to salient environmental variables during the design or analysis of a study may enable a host of navigational questions to be addressed, greatly enriching the field. We explore candidate variables in the form of a series of contrasts (e. g. land vs ocean or night vs day migration), which may vary naturally between migratory species, populations or even within the life span of a migrating individual. We discuss how these contrasts might help address questions of sensory mechanisms, spatiotemporal representational strategies and adaptive variation in navigational ability. We suggest that this comparative approach may help enrich our knowledge about the natural history of migratory navigation in birds.

Publishing year

2011

Language

English

Pages

3705-3712

Publication/Series

Journal of Experimental Biology

Volume

214

Issue

22

Document type

Journal article (comment)

Publisher

The Company of Biologists Ltd

Topic

  • Biological Sciences

Keywords

  • bird
  • migration
  • navigation
  • telemetry
  • tracking

Status

Published

Research group

  • Animal Navigation Lab

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1477-9145