Confused Bird Compasses

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/39932/title/Confused-Bird-Compasses/

By Rina Shaikh-Lesko | May 9, 2014

Electromagnetic “noise” from human development may confuse the internal compasses of migratory birds, according to a study published this week (May 7) in Nature. A team led by Henrik Mouritsen of the University of Oldenburg in Germany stumbled across the finding after running into repeated problems with an experiment looking at orienting behaviors in European robins ran. The robins didn’t orient as expected and it was only when the researchers introduced a Faraday cage—a metal screen with a grounding wire—where the birds were housed that they were able to use their internal compasses again.

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It’s unclear what is causing these waves and whether the effect is localized. When the birds were moved to a rural off-campus site, they regained their ability to orient even without the Faraday cage.

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