Field observations reveal that night-migrating passerines sometimes fly during early morning hours. Functional consideration of daytime flights have overshadowed proximate questions regarding the sensory basis of daytime orientation. I conducted a series of early morning cage-orientation experiments in spring with four species of migrating warblers (Parulinae) on the north coast of the Gulf of ...

Orientation and homing performance of pigeons with the left or right eye occluded were assessed in an arena at the release site and during the subsequent homing flight. Three release sites near Pisa, Italy, were used. Compared to binocular controls, monocular birds showed a bias in orientation towards the side of the viewing eye. In the arena, this bias was considerable and the mean deviation c...

Odours are key cues used by the honey bee in various situations. They play an important role in sexual attraction, social behaviour and location of profitable food sources. Here, we were interested in the role of odours in orientation at short distance, for instance the approach flight to a floral patch or in close proximity to the hive entrance. Using a newly designed wind tunnel, we investiga...

The evolution of bilaterally symmetric feathers is a fundamental process leading toward flight. One major unsolved mystery is how the feathers of a single bird can form radially symmetric downy feathers and bilaterally symmetric flight feathers. In developing downy feather follicles, barb ridges are organized parallel to the long axis of the feather follicle. In developing flight-feather follic...

Atmospheric conditions are known to affect flight propensity, behaviour during flight, and migration route in birds. Yet, the effects of fog have only rarely been studied although they could disrupt orientation hamper flight. Fog limit visibility migrating birds such that might not be able detect landmarks guide them their journey. Soaring migrants modulate speed direction relation wind vector ...

Vicon is a motion capture system that enables the estimation of translation and rotation of a moving object. The Vicon system is a set of cameras placed around a work area, the object to track moves within such area. Therefore, position and orientation of the object of interest can be estimated through the Vicon system. Motivated by this, in this work we present the implementation of a Proporti...

Full-waveform airborne laser scanning systems provide fundamental observations for each echo, such as echo width and amplitude. It is rarely to use amplitude for interpretation of point clouds due to its strong variability with different factors. A normalization process is usually applied. This study carried out a factorial experiment to investigate the effects of varying landforms and flight g...

Convincing evidence that migrant monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) use a magnetic compass to aid their fall migration has been lacking from the spectacular navigational capabilities of this species. Here we use flight simulator studies to show that migrants indeed possess an inclination magnetic compass to help direct their flight equatorward in the fall. The use of this inclination compas...

Spatial disorientation (SD) in flight wastes hundreds of millions of dollars worth of defense capability annually and continues to kill air-crew. SD results primarily from inadequacies of human visual and vestibular sensory systems in the flying environment; but other factors, such as task saturation and distraction, precipitate it. The United States Air Force is conducting a three-pronged rese...