HOMING PIGEONS PRIMARILY USE THE SUN COMPASS RATHER THAN FIXED DIRECTIONAL VISUAL CUES IN AN OPEN-FIELD ARENA FOOD-SEARCHING TASK

Although much is now known about the navigational strategies of homing pigeons, Columba livia, much less is understood about the nature of t heir familiar area map. Although familiar visual landmarks are probabl y important, it is not yet known whether birds can pilot using the arr angement of landmarks directly, or whether landmarks merely specify su n compass directions home. In this study we develop a laboratory 'anal ogue' of the familiar area orientation problem, and show that pigeons primarily use sun compass information to encode the direction of a foo d goal, despite the presence of prominent, fixed, directional visual c ues, and under both visual cue-shift and clock-shift conditions. Our r esults suggest that the sun compass is deeply embedded in the way pige ons represent their spatial environment.