Iron containing short nerve branches in the upper beak of birds may serve as a magnetometer to measure the vector of the Earth magnetic field (intensity and inclination) and not only as a magnetic compass, which shows the direction of the magnetic field lines.
It's cool to see physics and biology in the same article. Not only can birds tell the direction of the magnetic north pole, they can determine how far or close they are by how intense the signal is from their current position. Having a tool like this built into your genes must be such a helpful trait to have.
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Chris, can you post the link for this article? I am a very novice birder. But, I am always perplexed by the same assortment of birds at given times of the year. Yea, yea they follow the weather. How is it that the same birds follow a calendar more then weather patterns? You will be accustom to seeing a certain bird at a certain time regardless of the weather or temperature. It makes sense they are following the magnetic pull of the Earth, and the effect the tilt has on that field.
ReplyDeleteI've read something about birds and other migratory animals having some form of sensitivity to magnetic fields but I've never heard how they do it. I guess it makes sense that they would use a magnetically charged substance in order to garner magnetic sensitivity. It's like the origional GPS.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.biologynews.net/archives/2010/02/23/a_magnetometer_in_the_upper_beak_of_birds.html if you want it in text, but was hyperlinked as the first paragraph
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