RECOGNITION OF FAMILIAR VISUAL LANDMARKS IN HOMING PIGEONS

It is now well established that homing pigeons (Columba livia) use a v ariety of mechanisms and cues to help them find their way home. It is far more difficult to determine the relative importance attached to su ch mechanisms and cues by pigeons during homing. As a step towards thi s quantitative stage in our understanding of homing behaviour we consi der if cues contribute significantly to homing speed. In particular we attempt to assess the role of visual landmarks. Using pigeons release d from familiar release sites, we demonstrate that birds home faster i f they can view their surroundings from inside a Perspex box for s min utes prior to being released, compared to birds denied this view. Pige ons released from unfamiliar sites, however, do not show a similar imp rovement. We suggest that seeing familiar visual landmarks before rele ase allows pigeons to become more certain of their current location wi th respect to home. Simply viewing the release site is not sufficient to produce a faster homing speed; the pigeons must be able to recogniz e that the release site is familiar.