Magnetic versus celestial orientation in migrating birds.

When experimental orientation research began more than 35 years ago, the sun, the stars and later the magnetic field were shown to be involved in the orientation of migrating birds, together with wind, weather and certain landscape features. The interaction of these cues, however, was little understood and became a subject of intensive research. Just recently we have begun to understand how these different mechanisms might work together to enable birds to cope with the navigational tasks of migration over distances of up to 5000 km and more.