Access to the sky near the horizon and stars does not play a crucial role in compass calibration of European songbird migrants

Author:

Pakhomov Alexander1ORCID,Prokshina Anisia2ORCID,Cellarius Fedor2ORCID,Mouritsen Henrik345ORCID,Chernetsov Nikita16ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Biological Station Rybachy, Zoological Institute RAS 1 , 238535 Rybachy, Kaliningrad Region , Russia

2. Lomonosov Moscow State University 2 Department of Vertebrate Zoology , , 119234 Moscow , Russia

3. Institute for Biology and Environmental Sciences, Carl-von-Ossietzky-Universität Oldenburg 3 , 26111 Oldenburg , Germany

4. Research Centre for Neurosensory Sciences 4 , , Carl-von-Ossietzky-Strasse 9-11, 26129 Oldenburg , Germany

5. Carl-von-Ossietzky-University Oldenburg 4 , , Carl-von-Ossietzky-Strasse 9-11, 26129 Oldenburg , Germany

6. St. Petersburg State University 5 Department of Vertebrate Zoology , , 199034 St. Petersburg , Russia

Abstract

ABSTRACT Migratory birds use different global cues including celestial and magnetic information to determine and maintain their seasonally appropriate migratory direction. A hierarchy among different compass systems in songbird migrants is still a matter for discussion owing to highly variable and apparently contradictory results obtained in various experimental studies. How birds decide whether and how they should calibrate their compasses before departure remains unclear. A recent ‘extended unified theory’ suggested that access to both a view of the sky near the horizon and stars during the cue-conflict exposure might be crucial for the results of cue-conflict experiments. In this study, we performed cue-conflict experiments in three European songbird species with different migratory strategies (garden warbler, Sylvia borin; pied flycatcher, Ficedula hypoleuca; and European robin, Erithacus rubecula; juveniles and adults; spring and autumn migrations) using a uniform experimental protocol. We exposed birds to the natural celestial cues in a shifted (120 deg clockwise/counterclockwise) magnetic field from sunset to the end of the nautical twilight and tested them in orientation cages immediately after cue-conflict treatments. None of the species (apart from adult robins) showed any sign of calibration even if they had access to a view of the sky and local surroundings near the horizon and stars during cue-conflict treatments. Based on results of our experiments and data from previous contradictory studies, we suggest that no uniform theory can explain why birds calibrate or do not calibrate their compass systems. Each species (and possibly even different populations) may choose its calibration strategy differently.

Funder

Russian Foundation for Basic Research

Zoological Institute RAS

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

Publisher

The Company of Biologists

Subject

Insect Science,Molecular Biology,Animal Science and Zoology,Aquatic Science,Physiology,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

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