title: Gaze strategy in the free flying zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata).
abstract: Fast moving animals depend on cues derived from the optic flow on their retina. Optic flow from translational locomotion includes information about the three-dimensional composition of the environment, while optic flow experienced during a rotational self motion does not. Thus, a saccadic gaze strategy that segregates rotations from translational movements during locomotion will facilitate extraction of spatial information from the visual input. We analysed whether birds use such a strategy by highspeed video recording zebra finches from two directions during an obstacle avoidance task. Each frame of the recording was examined to derive position and orientation of the beak in three-dimensional space. The data show that in all flights the head orientation was shifted in a saccadic fashion and was kept straight between saccades. Therefore, birds use a gaze strategy that actively stabilizes their gaze during translation to simplify optic flow based navigation. This is the first evidence of birds actively optimizing optic flow during flight.
authors.affiliation: Lehrstuhl für Verhaltensforschung, Universität Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany. dennis.eckmeier@uni-bielefeld.de
authors.forename: Dennis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Eckmeier
authors.forename: Bart R H
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Geurten
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kress
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mertes
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kern
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Egelhaaf
authors.forename: Hans-Joachim
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Bischof
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D046369:Finches / Q000502:physiology*; D005426:Flight, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D006257:Head / Q000502:physiology; D008954:Models, Biological; D009038:Motion; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology