Homing pigeons

Homing by olfactory cues has been the most researched topic in bird navigation research for many years. Homing pigeons and petrels use airborne cues for orientation under certain conditions. However, many experimental results do not clearly show that odors are the crucial stimuli. 

During the last 30 years, several laboratories have examined homing pigeons for their ability to use odors for orientation. Early experiments suggested that olfaction is important in orientation homing pigeons with their olfactory nerves cut were generally found to be unable to home from short... 

Papi, F., Fiore, L., Fiaschi, V., and Benvenuti, S. (1973). An experiment for testing the hypothesis of olfactory navigation of homing pigeons. Journal of Comparative Physiology 83,93-102. 

Waldvogel, J. A. (1987). Olfectory navigation in homing pigeons are the current models atmospherically realistic. Attfe 104,369-379. 

Waldvogel, J. A., Phillips, J. B., and Brown, A. I. (1988). Changes in the short-term deflector loft effect are linked to the sun compass of homing pigeons. Animal Behaviour 36, 150-158. 

Navigation by homing pigeons. Ethology, Ecology andEvolution 1,81. 

A series of final examples are provided by studies of homing pigeons and their use of odor cues. The reader is referred to Benvenuti et al. (1992) for a review of these studies. Homing is a strong unlearned behavior and when studied in combination with various physiological manipulations (e.g., bilateral resection of the olfactory nerves Baldaccini et al. 1975), considerable information about... 

Benvenuti, S., P. loale F. Papi. 1992. The olfactory map of homing pigeons. In Chemical Signals in Vertebrates VI, eds. R.L. Doty D. Muller-Schwarze, pp. 429-434, Plenum Press, New York. 

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