Magnetic map in songbird migrants

Garden warbler, Eurasian reed warbler,
Marsh warbler, European robin

with Ornithology Lab (PI Nikita Chernetsov).

About project

Every year, millions of birds undertake an incredible journey from their breeding grounds to wintering sites. Most small passerine birds migrate alone at night. How do naïve songbirds manage to reach locations hundreds or even thousands of kilometres away from where they were born without a fully developed navigation system? How does their navigation system develop and update throughout the journey, and what are the components of their navigational map? These are the key questions this project seeks to answer.

Our discoveries

Our experimental setups

Virtual magnetic displacement setup

Magnetic equator crossing setup

Key papers:

Utvenko G, Gorvat P, Grebenkova A, Pakhomov A, Chernetsov N, 2025. Magnetic orientation of marsh warblers (Acrocephalus palustris) and spotted flycatchers (Muscicapa striata) after simulated crossing of the magnetic equator // The Journal of Experimental Biology 228 (3): JEB248169. doi: 10.1242/jeb.248169

Chernetsov N, Pakhomov A, Davydov A, Cellarius F, Mouritsen H, 2020. No evidence for the use of magnetic declination for migratory navigation in two songbird species // PLOS ONE 15(4): e0232136. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0232136

Pakhomov A., Anashina A., Heyers D., Kobylkov D., Mouritsen H., Chernetsov N., 2018. Magnetic map navigation requires input from the trigeminal nerve in a migratory songbird // Scientific Reports 8: 11975. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-30477-8

Chernetsov N., Pakhomov A., Kobylkov D., Kishkinev D., Holland A. R., Mouritsen H., 2017. Migratory Eurasian reed warblers can use magnetic declination to solve the longitude problem // Current Biology, 27 (17): 2647–2651. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.07.024

Kishkinev D., Chernetsov N., Pakhomov A., Heyers D., Mouritsen H., 2015. Eurasian reed warblers compensate for virtual magnetic displacement // Current Biology, 25 (19): R822–R824. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2015.08.01

Kishkinev D, Chernetsov N, Heyers D, Mouritsen H, 2013 Migratory Reed Warblers Need Intact Trigeminal Nerves to Correct for a 1,000 km Eastward Displacement // PLoS ONE 8(6): e65847. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0065847

Kishkinev D, Chernetsov D, Mouritsen H, 2010. A Double-Clock or Jetlag Mechanism is Unlikely to be Involved in Detection of East—West Displacements in a Long-Distance Avian Migrant // The Auk, Volume 127, Issue 4, 1 October 2010, Pages 773–780, https://doi.org/10.1525/auk.2010.10032

Nikita Chernetsov Dmitry Kishkinev, Henrik Mouritsen, 2008. A Long-Distance Avian Migrant Compensates for Longitudinal Displacement during Spring Migration // Current Biology, Volume 18, Issue 3, 188 – 190. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2008.01.018

Related papers:

Packmor Florian,Kishkinev Dmitry, Zechmeister Thomas, Mouritsen Henrik and Holland Richard A. 2024. Migratory birds can extract positional information from magnetic inclination and magnetic declination aloneProc. R. Soc. B.291rspb20241363http://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2024.1363

Kishkinev, D., Packmor, F., Zechmeister, T., Winkler, H.-C., Chernetsov, N., Mouritsen, H. and Holland, R. A. (2021). Navigation by extrapolation of geomagnetic cues in a migratory songbird. Curr. Biol. 1–7.

Funding:

Type: Research Grant
Funder: Russian Science Foundation
Date: 2024 – 2026
Project: Magnetic compass and magnetic map in birds and amphibians.
PI: Nikita Chernetsov
Total fund: 77000€/year
Type: Research Grant
Funder: Russian Science Foundation
Date: 2017 – 2019
Project: Sensory systems underlying short- and long-distance navigation in birds
PI: Dmitry Kishkinev
Total fund: 86000€/year
Type: Research Grant
Funder: Russian Foundation for Basic Research
Date: 2015
Project: Magnetic declination as a part of a navigational map in migratory birds.
PI: Nikita Chernetsov
Total fund: 5000€