Flight paths of homing pigeons studied by means of a direction recorder

The direction recorder -- a recently developed device -- can be strapped to the back of a homing pigeon in order to sample and record the direction toward which it is heading, thus allowing the reconstruction of the whole flight path between the release and recovery site. Some experiments were performed using this device with pigeons not subjected to experimental treatments; our experiments were aimed at testing the effect of topography on homing flight paths. The results show that homing pigeons often follow linear landmarks and that there are considerable differences in individual homing strategies. © 1994 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.