Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Captive birds and conservation
- 2 Research collections in ornithology – a reaffirmation
- 3 On the study of avian mating systems
- 4 Cooperative breeding strategies among birds
- 5 Ecological energetics: what are the questions?
- 6 Perspectives in optimal foraging
- 7 Biochemical studies of microevolutionary processes
- 8 Organization of the avian genome
- 9 The origin and early radiation of birds
- 10 Avian community ecology: an iconoclastic view
- 11 Biogeography: the unification and maturation of a science
- 12 Bird song learning: theme and variations
- 13 Bird navigation
- Index
13 - Bird navigation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Captive birds and conservation
- 2 Research collections in ornithology – a reaffirmation
- 3 On the study of avian mating systems
- 4 Cooperative breeding strategies among birds
- 5 Ecological energetics: what are the questions?
- 6 Perspectives in optimal foraging
- 7 Biochemical studies of microevolutionary processes
- 8 Organization of the avian genome
- 9 The origin and early radiation of birds
- 10 Avian community ecology: an iconoclastic view
- 11 Biogeography: the unification and maturation of a science
- 12 Bird song learning: theme and variations
- 13 Bird navigation
- Index
Summary
The question of how birds find their way during migration and homing has interested the lay public and ornithologists alike. Yet despite all the work that has been done, there are still no definite answers to the question. We know many pieces of the puzzle in the form of cues that birds seem to use, but so far these pieces fail to form a coherent picture. Indeed, there are such large gaps in the puzzle that it seems more than likely that we may not even have all the pieces yet!
During the past 25 years, there has been a great increase in the experimental work on bird orientation and consequently a great proliferation of research papers and reviews. The most useful of these reviews are the ones by Emlen (1975) on migratory birds, Keeton (1974a) on homing in pigeons, Schmidt-Koenig (1979) for a general review on bird orientation and navigation, and Able (1980a) for the general mechanisms of orientation in animals. Given this proliferation of excellent reviews, the only excuse we can offer for yet another is that the field is moving so rapidly that a brief overview of new developments would complement the existing literature and might be helpful to the nonspecialist.
In thinking about bird navigation, there are two major kinds of phenomena we seek to explain. The first is the twice yearly migration of birds, often over distances of thousands of miles.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Perspectives in OrnithologyEssays Presented for the Centennial of the American Ornitholgists' Union, pp. 513 - 548Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1983
- 5
- Cited by