Directional orientation of pheasant chicks at the drinking dish and its potential for research on avian magnetoreception

Abstract. Magnetoreception has been widely studied in birds mainly through the paradigm of homing or seasonally appropriate migratory direction. It was found that in total darkness or under selected light regimes (differing in colour and/or intensities), migratory birds display orientation towards certain “fixed” directions which do not correspond to the migratory or homing direction. This “fixed orientation” might correspond to the so-called magnetic alignment recorded in animals of different non-avian taxa. Here we demonstrate that also “common”, non-migratory birds, pheasants, adopt a preferred position and body orientation when drinking at a circular dish. We recorded these parameters by means of camera traps in a pheasantry under control conditions and under experimental exposure to bright blue light. We identified three types of orientation at the edge of drinking dish: standing radially or tangentially with left or right eye to the dish. The position of tangentially drinking chicks was significantly non-random. While the position of radially drinking chicks was random under control conditions, it became significantly non-random, concentrated at about the north and south pole of the dish, under bright blue light. Our results show that this alignment has some similarities with the “fixed orientation”. We suggest that the preference towards a “fixed” direction serves to calibration, organization and reading of the mental (cognitive) map of the space and as a direction indicator. We discuss heuristic potential of the presented research (experimental and evaluation) design for further study on magnetoreception.