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Study

Magnetic compass of European robins

Wiltschko, Wolfgang; Wiltschko, Roswitha

Science, 1972

Peer-reviewedcontrolled laboratory experimentcaptive

What they did

Robins showing migratory restlessness were tested in orientation cages inside coil systems that could alter the direction and inclination of the surrounding magnetic field, with the sky excluded. Horizontal direction and vertical inclination were manipulated separately.

Studied in
Erithacus rubecula
Sample size
European robins in orientation cages under altered fields

What they found

Birds reoriented when the horizontal component was turned, showing they use the magnetic field for direction. Reversing the horizontal component alone did not reverse their heading; reversing the vertical inclination did. The compass reads the angle the field makes with gravity, not which end points north.

What it means

The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.

How the authors put it

Birds possess an inclination compass, distinguishing poleward from equatorward rather than north from south.

How NatureHQ reads it

This is the finding that should replace "birds have a compass in their heads" wherever that sentence appears. A magnetic compass reads polarity; a bird reads the angle of the field lines against the ground, which is a different instrument giving a different answer. It works perfectly well and it would be useless at the magnetic equator, and it explains why a bird carried across the equator has to reinterpret the same field.

Limitations

  • Cage orientation is intention rather than flight, with all the caveats that carries.
  • One species; the inclination compass is now known widely among migrants but was established here in robins.
  • The receptor mechanism is not identified by the behavioural result and remains contested.

The experiment, explained

  • Reversing a magnetic field the wrong way round on purpose

    Birds orient by the magnetic field in total darkness. Is their compass the kind in a hiker’s pocket?

What this study is used for on NatureHQ

One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.

Finding the paper

Published by: American Association for the Advancement of SciencePublished in Science or Science Advances (AAAS).

doi.org/10.1126/science.176.4030.62

This reference was resolved automatically against Crossref on 2026-08-11.

NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-08-10.