Further evidence of a time-independent stellar compass in a night-migrating songbird

Pakhomov, A. Yu.; Anashina, Anna; Chernetsov, Nikita

doi:10.1007/s00265-017-2279-3

Cited by 17 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Migratory birds can use three different compass systems to determine their migratory directionthe sun compass (Kramer, 1952;Schmidt-Koenig, 1990), the star compass (Emlen, 1967a,b;Pakhomov et al, 2017) and the magnetic compass (Wiltschko and Wiltschko, 1972;Hore and Mouritsen, 2016). Even though avian compass systems work independently of one another (Mouritsen, 1998), there exists a rather complex and species-specific hierarchy and interactions between them (Pakhomov and Chernetsov, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite this, the validity of combining the solar and the star compasses into a single celestial compass system is not confirmed or refuted. An important point against this is the fact that the solar compass depends on the birds' sense of time (Schmidt-Koenig, 1990), whereas the star compass is time independent and can be used successfully even when the internal clock is out of sync with the external photoperiod (Mouritsen and Larsen, 2001;Pakhomov et al, 2017). Apart from theoretical considerations, the existence of a unified celestial compass could be shown experimentally if their common characteristics complement each other.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ontogeny of the star compass in birds: pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca) can establish the star compass in spring

Zolotareva

Utvenko

Romanova

et al. 2021

Journal of Experimental Biology

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The star compass of birds, as well as the sun compass, is not innate. To possess either of them, the birds have to observe the rotating sky and determine its' center of rotation (in the star compass case) or the sun's movement (in the sun compass). Young birds are believed to learn how to use the star compass before their first migration, even though the evidence of this is lacking. Here, we test whether hand-raised Pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca) which had not established the star compass prior to their first autumn migration can gain it later in their ontogeny, in spring. We also attempted to examine if the observation of diurnal celestial cues (the sun and the polarized light) prior to autumn migration would affect the process of the star compass learning in spring. When tested in the vertical magnetic field under the natural starry sky, the group of birds which observed the stars in spring as the first celestial cues could choose the migratory direction. In contrast, the birds, which had never seen the stars, were not able to use the nightly celestial cues in the vertical magnetic field. However, the group of birds which had seen the daytime celestial cues till autumn and the stars at spring was disoriented, although this might be due to the small sample size. Our data suggest the possibility that the star compass may be learned in spring and emphasize the necessity for the further research in the interaction of celestial compasses.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ontogeny of the star compass in birds: pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca) can establish the star compass in spring

Zolotareva

Utvenko

Romanova

et al. 2021

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…However, there is no evidence that this species uses only the stellar compass during nocturnal migratory flight and ignores the information from the geomagnetic field. Additionally, in other cueconflict experiments, pied flycatchers tested in Emlen funnels immediately after cue-conflict treatment with access to all cues during the cue conflict and orientation tests showed the same response to such treatmentthey ignored the conflict between celestial cues and the magnetic field and oriented in an appropriate migratory direction (Rabøl, 2010;Pakhomov et al, 2019). It should be kept in mind that orientation tests in studies by Guinchi et al (2015; and in many others, see Table 1) were performed around sunset, so one cannot be certain that birds showed true migratory orientation behaviour, even if they oriented in the appropriate seasonal direction (Pakhomov and Chernetsov, 2014).…”

Section: ) Celestial Cues Calibrate the Magnetic Compassmentioning

confidence: 92%

A hierarchy of compass systems in migratory birds

Pakhomov

Chernetsov

2020

BioComm

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Migratory birds use several different sources of orientation information. They have at least three compass systems based on different cues: the sun and polarized light, the stars and their constellations, and the geomagnetic field. The concurrent information obtained from these three compasses is redundant, therefore the compasses need to have a hierarchy and must be calibrated relative to each other. One of the compasses should dominate the others, or some orientation cue should be used to calibrate the remaining compass systems. Results of experiments on a variety of songbird species demonstrate that while astronomical cues calibrate the magnetic compass during the pre-migratory period, strategies used during the migratory period are more diverse. In the present review, we analyze the results of all crucial cue-conflict studies, mostly performed in nocturnal songbird migrants; we also try to understand why some migratory species calibrate their magnetic compass on sunset cues while others use the geomagnetic field or stars as a primary cue source, and we examine why the previous hypothesis could not explain the findings of all cue-conflict experiments.

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“…Recent articles in Behavioral Ecology and Sociology (BES) have used circular statistics to explore issues as diverse as daily variation in mammalian activity (Fancourt 2016 ), orientation of sandhoppers with respect to the moon as part of their navigation (Ugolini 2016 ), search strategies of desert ants (Schultheiss et al 2016 ) and the directions with respect to a threat adopted by fleeing deer (Obleser et al 2016 ). In the first 6 months of 2017, BES published four papers utilising circular statistics investigating the relative positioning of individuals in an orb-weaving spider colony (Yip et al 2017 ), navigation in ants (Amador-Vargas and Mueller 2017 ), avian navigation by the stars (Pakhomov et al 2017 ) and integration of magnetic and visual navigational cues in shorebirds (Vanni et al 2017 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consequences of grouped data for testing for departure from circular uniformity

Humphreys

Ruxton

2017

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Limits to the precision of circular data often cause grouping of data points into discrete categories, but the effects of grouping on tests for circular uniformity have been little explored. The Rayleigh test is often applied to grouped circular data, despite it being designed for continuous data and the statistical literature recommending a suite of alternative tests specifically designed for grouped data. Here, we investigated the performance of the Rayleigh test relative to four alternatives for testing the null hypothesis of uniformity in grouped circular data. We employed simulation, grouping data into a discrete number of same-sized categories and with samples drawn from a range of different distributions. We found that grouping had little effect on the type I error rate or the power of the Rayleigh test, and that the power of the Rayleigh test was very similar to that of the previously recommended alternative tests designed specifically for grouped circular data. It may thus be appropriate to apply the Rayleigh test to grouped data, provided the situation is one in which the test has substantial statistical power.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s00265-017-2393-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Further evidence of a time-independent stellar compass in a night-migrating songbird

Cited by 17 publications

References 32 publications

Ontogeny of the star compass in birds: pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca) can establish the star compass in spring

Ontogeny of the star compass in birds: pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca) can establish the star compass in spring

A hierarchy of compass systems in migratory birds

Consequences of grouped data for testing for departure from circular uniformity

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