Data from: Homing pigeons respond to time-compensated solar cues even in sight of the loft

The sun has long been thought to guide bird navigation as the second step
in a two-stage process, in which determining position using a map is
followed by course setting using a compass, both over unfamiliar and
familiar terrain. The animal’s endogenous clock time-compensates the solar
compass for the sun’s apparent movement throughout the day, and this
allows predictable deflections in orientation to test for the compass’
influence using clock-shift manipulations. To examine the influence of the
solar compass during a highly familiar navigational task, 24 clock-shifted
homing pigeons were precision-tracked from a release site close to and in
sight of their final goal, the colony loft. The resulting trajectories
displayed significant partial deflection from the loft direction as
predicted by either fast or slow clock-shift treatments. The partial
deflection was also found to be stable along the entire trajectory
indicating regular updating of orientation via input from the solar
compass throughout the final approach flight to the loft. Our results
demonstrate that time-compensated solar cues are deeply embedded in the
way birds orient during homing flight, are accessed throughout the journey
and on a remarkably fine-grained scale, and may be combined effectively
simultaneously with direct guidance from familiar landmarks, even when
birds are flying towards a directly visible goal.