Research on pigeon homing suggests that magnetic field information is used for orientation. The ability of pigeons to sense magnetic fields may be associated with a small, unilateral structure between the brain and the skull which contains magnetic in what appears to be single domains.
Homing pigeons were equipped with a pair of small coils around their heads. Birds with an induced field of 0.6 gauss and the south magnetic pole up, oriented toward home normally under both sun and overcast. Birds with the polarity reversed oriented toward home when the sun was visible but often flew away from home under overcast.
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