"Dan Luke" wrote in message ...
"Gary Drescher" wrote:
pigeons ... follow roads.

That doesn't mean they're using pilotage. The pigeons are carried along
the roads in cars to the release points. How would they recognize a
route from the air they had traveled (and probably not seen) only on the
ground?

The article I read said they basically fly like us. When they cross
the ocean or fly home after being driven somewhere they use a
combination of things (their brains are sensitive to magnetic field
and they seem to know where the sun is and should be). However, if you
ask them to fly the same path over and over they get lazy and shut off
the "GPS" and just follow the roads. That makes sense, that's how I
fly. I don't use the GPS to fly around the local area.

It also makes sense because other animals work that way. A dog finds
his way home by following the roads he's familiar with. There is no
reason to believe birds who fly the same path all the time don't do
the same.

-Robert