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 dire ction toward which it is heading, thus allowing the reconstruction of the whole flight path between the release and recovery site. Some expe riments were performed using this device with pigeons not subjected to experimental treatments; our experiments were aimed al testing the ef fect of topography on homing flight paths. The results show that homin g pigeons often follow linear landmarks and that there are considerabl e differences in individual homing strategies.