Question
How do birds ‘get helped’ in navigation while undertaking long distance flights?
Answer
Birds have much sharper eyesight and better virtual memory of ground clues than humans. However, in long-distance flights, birds appear to navigate with the help of the Sun and stars, possibly in combination with a ‘reading’ of the Earth’s magnetic field. This is achieved through an inbuilt ‘magnetic compass, which is a tiny mass of tissue, between the eye and the brain, in birds.