Kashmiri Pandits' Association, Mumbai, India

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'Increase your Knowledge'  Series:

 How Birds Find Their Way

Like NASA space shuttles, birds have several back-up systems for orientation and navigation  that they can call upon.

     Landmarks are particularly important. Often birds circle a nest or roost site before leaving as if refreshing their memory  of the geography of the place. They observe the position of the Sun and crosscheck it with their biological clocks. If the Sun is behind clouds, but a little blue sky is visible, they can detect the changing angle of polarised light as the Sun crosses the sky and orientate using that. Night flyers have the stars to guide them, and night migrants flying in the Northern Hemisphere use the fixed position of the Pole Star to find their way.

     If the sky is overcast, there is another almost fail-safe system. Thanks to tiny particles of magnetic material in their heads and necks, birds can detect the lines of force that make up the Earth's magnetic field. The lines rise at an angle to the Earth's surface, so, in perceiving the angle at which lines intersect the ground, a bird can pinpoint its position on the planet with considerable accuracy.

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