Data from: Landscape heterogeneity and novelty drive avian oscillatory flight behaviour during forebrain wulst-dependent visual map learning

Homing pigeons are able to navigate within a familiar area by relying on familiar visual landmarks and landscape features. Learning and recalling familiar landscape cues, which compose the visual, familiar landmark-based map, are necessarily processed by visual processing regions of the forebrain, such as the visual Wulst. Recent GPS tracking studies revealed persistent oscillatory flight behaviour at a scale of high-spatial resolution in Wulst- and hippocampal-lesioned pigeons, compared to intact pigeons in which this movement pattern seems to disappear after repeated releases. However, the factors that lead to this characteristic flight pattern are still poorly understood. By analysing the flight patterns of intact and Wulst-lesioned pigeons released offshore we found that landscape complexity is an important factor determining the display of oscillatory flight behaviour in both control and Wulst-lesioned pigeons; birds flying over the sea display little osciallatory flight behaviour, but once flying over land, oscillatory flight behaviour becomes evident. The analysis of the tracks of pigeons repeatedly released over both unfamiliar and familiar areas revealed that in intact birds the extent of oscillatory flight behaviour was reduced with increasing familiarity with the landscape. By contrast, Wulst-lesioned pigeons displayed persistent oscillatory flight behaviour regardless of the level of familiarity with the landscape. These findings suggest that the oscillatory flight behaviour contributes to the learning and integration of visual landscape information during the acquisition of a familiar landmark-based map. We discuss the possible role of the visual Wulst in familiar landmark-based navigation, proposing a spatial-cognitive brain network model in which both the visual Wulst and hippocampal formation play prominent roles.