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REVIEW article

Front. Physiol.

Sec. Avian Physiology

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphys.2025.1562569

This article is part of the Research Topic Rising Stars in Avian Physiology: 2024 View all 9 articles

Do first-time avian migrants know where they are going: the clock-and-compass concept today

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 Zoological Institute (RAS), Saint Petersburg, Russia
  • 2 Saint Petersburg State University, Saint Petersburg, Saint Petersburg, Russia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    What if your life depended on finding a place you've never been -without a GPS device, a guide, or any way of knowing where to go? For young songbirds, this is the reality of their first migration. While this once puzzled researchers studying bird migration, advances in the field have since uncovered that many songbirds rely on an inherited genetic program to guide their remarkable solo journeys. Today, the most widely accepted theory explaining how young birds of species that migrate solitary and do not follow experienced conspecifics find their way to wintering grounds is the 'clock-and-compass' concept. According to this concept, naïve migrants follow a certain compass direction for a pre-defined period. In the simplest case, when the program runs out, they find themselves in their species-specific non-breeding range.However, recent research suggests that this process might be significantly more complex. New data indicate that first-time migrants may not have a complete map but rather a system of beacons. This system could be based, for example, on geomagnetic cues or other cues that help first-year birds navigate their location along the migration route. To date, a significant body of evidence has been gathered to revise the classic 'clock and compass' program. It is likely that first-time migrants of many species (although perhaps not all) are capable of varying degrees of location control based on innate information. The question of what data sources they use and how precise their control remains open for further investigation.

    Keywords: animal navigation and orientation, Bird migration, Genetics of behavior, Endogenous programs, clock-and-compass concept, Vector navigation, innate beacons, innate component magnetic map

    Received: 17 Jan 2025; Accepted: 27 Mar 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Chernetsov and Utvenko. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Nikita Chernetsov, Zoological Institute (RAS), Saint Petersburg, Russia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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