image: Knowing about navigation: Savannah sparrows recalibrate their compass systems using polarized light at sunrise and sunset. Inset: (left) Savannah sparrows, (right) The Prime Meridian Sculpture at the Royal Museum of Navigation, UK features metal "sails" reminiscent of the alignments of the band of maximum polarization at sunrise and sunset at Spring and Fall equinoxes. Migratory birds are proposed to use the alignments at sunrise and sunset to determine the north-south meridian to assist in calibrating their other compass systems. This image relates to an article that appeared in the August 11, 2006, issue of the journal Science, published by AAAS. The study, by R. Muheim at Lund University in Lund, Sweden and colleagues, was titled "Polarized Light Cues Underlie Compass Calibrations in Migratory Songbirds." view more
Credit: Photo provided by Dr. Rachel Muheim, Lund University in Lund, Sweden and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, VA via <i>Science</i>-AAAS.