Orientation of homing pigeons altered by a change in the direction of an applied magnetic field.
Homing pigeons were equipped with a pair of small coils around their heads. Birds with an induced field of 0.6 gauss and the south magnetic pole up, oriented toward home normally under both sun and overcast. Birds with the polarity reversed oriented toward home when the sun was visible but often flew away from home under overcast.
D000818:Animals; D010856:Columbidae / Q000502:physiology*; D055590:Electromagnetic Phenomena; D008027:Light; D009949:Orientation; D014796:Visual Perception