Pigeons that had been injected with a drug to deplete their special liver cells did not find their way home until the sun came out. Christian Ziegler / Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior Pigeons ...

Scientists have uncovered a surprising navigation system in pigeons: iron-filled immune cells in the liver that may act like tiny magnetic sensors. Birds deprived of these cells struggled to find ...

When an American battalion was trapped behind enemy lines in World War I, a pigeon delivered the coordinates that helped save the soldiers when no human messenger could. Later, pigeons carried ...

Pigeons and other birds can do it. So can sea turtles and spiny lobsters, moths and mole rats, gray whales and big brown bats. Many members of the animal kingdom can detect the subtle undulations of ...

How pigeons fly hundreds of kilometers and still find their way home has long fascinated people. Now, researchers say a surprising answer may be hidden, not in the brain or eyes of birds, but in the ...

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A new theory claims to have solved the long-standing conundrum of how homing pigeons use Earth’s magnetic field to find their way. The hypothesis: pigeon livers act like compasses. Biologists have ...

Homing pigeons don’t rely on gut instinct to return to the roost. But a nearby organ — the liver — might point the way. White blood cells in the birds’ livers accumulate iron and act as an internal ...

Scientists have long known that migrating birds and homing pigeons navigate in part by sensing the Earth’s magnetic fields, especially at night or in overcast conditions when visual landmarks or ...

Researchers are developing a futuristic alternative to LASIK that reshapes the eye without lasers or incisions. Using mild electrical pulses and platinum contact lenses, they temporarily soften the ...

When it comes to flocking together, homing pigeons use a simple strategy to find better ways home, according to a recent report. The study, published in the journal eLife, suggests that homing pigeons ...

Bones discovered at an archaeological site in Cyprus suggest the birds have been strutting around human settlements since at least 1400 B.C. By Rachel Nuwer People did not always look down their noses ...