Study
Der Einfluß experimentell veränderter Zeitschätzung auf das Heimfindevermögen bei Brieftauben
Schmidt-Koenig, Klaus
Die Naturwissenschaften, 1958
Pigeons were held for several days under artificial light–dark cycles shifted by a known number of hours from local time, then released at a distance from home, and their initial bearings compared with untreated controls.
- Studied in
- Columba livia
- Sample size
- homing pigeons held under shifted light cycles
Clock-shifted birds departed at a heading rotated from the correct one by approximately the angle the sun moves in the period of the shift, in the direction the shift predicts.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Pigeons read direction from the sun and correct for its movement using an internal clock; shifting the clock shifts the correction and therefore the heading.
How NatureHQ reads it
The cleanest demonstration in the whole of navigation that a compass needs a clock. It also shows what the sun compass cannot do: a clock-shifted bird sets off confidently in the wrong direction, which means the sun was telling it which way to go and something else entirely had told it where home was.
- Measures initial bearing at release; birds often correct later, so the result is about the compass rather than about whether they get home.
- Domestic pigeons selected for homing, which is a strong caveat about generalising to wild birds.
Putting a pigeon’s clock six hours wrong
If an animal steers by the sun, it must be correcting for the sun moving. What happens if you break the correction?
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Published by: Springer journalsPublished in a Springer journal.
Checked against Crossref on 2026-09-28, and they agree on the title, the authors and the year.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-09-03.