Spatial navigation in hummingbirds

Ida Bailey
Thursday 21 May 2015

To test spatial memory, David Pritchard taught hummingbirds to feed from an artificial flower positioned between two landmarks. He then removed the flower and watched to see where each hummingbird searched for it, recording how close the bird stop to where the flower had been positioned using two video cameras 90 degrees apart so the flight path could be recreated and analysed using specialist software.

David3 copyThese experiments will provide some insight into how hummingbirds use landmarks to remember the locations of flowers they have visited.

 

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