HOMING PIGEONS

I am an engineer interested in how birds navigate. I know quite a bit about how sailors navigate and I have been trying to see how this is reflected in biological research.

A discussion in Prof. Wallraff's book  Avian Navigation : Pigeon Homing as a Paradigm ISBN 3-540-22385-1 (2005) piqued my interest in the Olfactory Hypothesis.

It seems to me that a pigeon, sensitive to olfactory cues, ought to be able to estimate its East-West position with respect to its home loft. I have indicated how this might be done here and I have added a supplementary note about the time sense of birds here.

Latest revision 20 January 2012