Birds likely see magnetic fields

Imagine if your eyes could see the Earth's magnetic field around you. It's likely that migratory birds can do just that.

We've known that migratory birds use the Earth's magnetic field to navigate during their migrations. In order to sense magnetic fields, birds use their eyes and the part of the brain that processes vision.

Recently, scientists observed the jumping behavior of garden warblers under different colors of light. It was observed that only certain colors of light threw off the birds' navigation system. This hinted that vision played a role. In further studies, brain activity was monitored while the birds where in migratory mode. The neuron pathways for sensing vision and magnetism were found to be one in the same. link audio