Magnetoreception enables animals to sense magnetic fields, which helps them navigate and orient themselves through the perception of location, direction or altitude. It’s been established that a ...

The magnetic sense in migratory birds has been studied in considerable detail: unlike a boy scout's compass, which shows the compass direction, a bird's compass recognizes the inclination of the ...

The Yellow-bellied flycatcher (Empidonax flaviventris) is a small insectivore of the tyrant flycatcher family that cannot produce the protein cryptochrome 4. The birds breed in North America and ...

It’s now winter in Europe and many small birds are well on their way to warmer climes, migrating over large tracts of land in search of better weather. Along the way, they keep their course with a ...

Turns out that dogs and primates are the latest in a line of creatures that produce cryptochrome, the photopigment that lets migratory birds see the Earth's magnetic field. Share on Facebook (opens in ...

Some animals are capable of magnetoreception—an added sense that helps them detect magnetic fields. European scientists have now learned that the molecule responsible for this trait is also found in ...

Pigeons may sense Earth's magnetic field using special cells in the inner ear. This discovery explains how they navigate long ...

A light-sensitive protein in the human eye has been shown to act as a "compass" in a magnetic field, when it is present in flies' eyes. The study in Nature Communications showed that without their ...