Homing pigeons as a model for avian navigation?

The findings on the navigational mechanisms of homing pigeons and the available data on those of wild birds, in particular migrants, are compared. There are important parallels in the use of the magnetic field and the sun for directional orientation. Also the findings on the navigational ‘map’, its preferred use by experienced birds and the strategy of using route information to acquire the necessary knowledge to establish the ‘map’, obtained in pigeons studies, can probably be generalized to wild birds and migrants in their home region. It seems that birds share a common navigational system. Special development of migratory birds, however, is the innate migration program that enables young first‐time migrants to reach their still unknown wintering area.