Homeward orientation of pigeons confined in a circular arena.

To investigate the ability of homing pigeons to determine the home direction at the release site before take off, we recorded the oriented movement of 17 birds at the point at which they left a circular arena. We subsequently observed the pigeons' vanishing bearings. The comparison between the orientation of each bird while leaving the arena and at its vanishing point showed that pigeons are generally able to orient in a direction close to the home direction before taking-off. This finding illustrates the possibility of studying pigeon orientation in a controllable space with evident advantages for experimentation.