Bird's-Eye View May Include Magnetic Fields

BoredStiff writes "Heard on NPR and reported in ScienceDaily: a study finding that migratory birds may be able to 'see' magnetic fields. The report comes from a current study by a research group from Oldenburg, Germany. They found that migratory birds use their visual system to perceive the reference compass direction of the geomagnetic field: 'Sensory systems process their particular stimuli along specific brain circuits. Thus, the identification of what sensory system is active during magnetic compass orientation, provides a way to recognize the sensory quality utilized during that specific behavior.'"

Comments

If you want to know what it feels like

[Anonymous Coward]

Check this hack out: http://www.hackaday.com/2007/09/18/haptic-radar-electronic-whiskers/
Hardware hack that lets you sense your surroundings.

So what happens if the magnetic field changes?

[mark-t]

What happens if the magnet field flips, or drops completely for few millenia, as is speculated has happened before and will likely happen again?

Re:Does this mean birds aren't doomed after all?

[Climate Shill]

If they can see the field lines, though, this may not be the case.

This is quite unlikely, given that there are no such things as magnetic field lines.