Pigeons follow the motorway

Experts spent 10 years studying how homing pigeons navigate - and found they simply follow roads.

University researchers discovered that, wherever possible, pigeons ignored their inbuilt compasses, preferring to follow AA-suggested routes. The birds were repeatedly tracked flying along motorways, circling ring roads and even turning right and left at main junctions.

For decades scientists thought birds took their bearings from the sun and stars. But now, using a global-positioning tracking device small enough for a pigeon to carry on its back, researchers have successfully tracked homing pigeons' exact routes for the first time.

Zoology professor Tim Guilford, of Oxford University, said: "It has knocked our research team sideways to find that, after a decade-long international study, pigeons appear to ignore their inbuilt directional instincts and follow the road system. For longdistance navigation, and trying a journey for the first time, they will take sun and star bearings.

"But once homing pigeons have flown a journey more than once, they appear to depend more on the route they remember. So, strange as it sounds, pigeons end up following AA-suggested routes."

He said it was "comical" to watch one group of birds released near a major A-road.

"They followed the road to the first junction where they all turned right and, a couple of junctions on, they all turned left."

Peter Brian, of the Royal Pigeon Racing Association, called the research "spot on", adding: "Every Saturday you can see whole flocks of pigeons flying up the M5."