Flight tracks of homing pigeons measured with GPS

  • Flight paths of homing pigeons were measured with a newly developed recorder based on GPS. The device consists of a GPS receiver board, a logging facility, an antenna, a power supply, a DCDC converter and a casing. It has a weight of 33g and works reliably with a sampling rate of 1/s with an operation time of about 3 h, providing timeindexed data on geographic positions, ground speed and altitude. The data are downloaded when the bird is recaptured. The devices are fixed to the birds with a harness. The measured complete flight paths show many details: e.g. initial loops flown immediately after release and large detours flown by some pigeons. We are here presenting 3 examples of flight paths from a release site 17.3 km Northeast of the home loft in Frankfurt. Mean speed in flight, duration of breaks and length of the flight path were calculated. The pigeons chose different routes and have different individual tendencies to fly loops over the village close to the release site.

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Metadaten
Author:Karen von Hünerbein, Eckhard Rüter, Wolfgang WiltschkoGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30-24219
Document Type:Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2006/01/30
Year of first Publication:2001
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2006/01/30
GND Keyword:Brieftaube; Orientierungsverhalten; Flugdatenregistriergerät; GPS <Satellitengeodäsie>
Note:
Postprint, zuerst in Conference Proceedings of RIN 01 Orientation & Navigation - Birds, Humans & Other Animals April 10th-12th, 2001 (ed: Royal Institute of Navigation): Paper 29 ; u.d.T. "Flight tracks of homing pigeons measured with GPS" auch in: J. Navigation 54(2): 167
Source:In Conference Proceedings of RIN 01 Orientation & Navigation - Birds, Humans & Other Animals April 10th-12th, 2001 (ed: Royal Institute of Navigation): Paper 29 ; u.d.T. "Flight tracks of homing pigeons measured with GPS" auch in: J. Navigation 54(2): 167
HeBIS-PPN:226452751
Institutes:Biowissenschaften / Biowissenschaften
Dewey Decimal Classification:5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 59 Tiere (Zoologie) / 590 Tiere (Zoologie)
Sammlungen:Sammlung Biologie / Sondersammelgebiets-Volltexte
Licence (German):License LogoDeutsches Urheberrecht