Adaptive evolution and loss of a putative magnetoreceptor in passerines.

Migratory birds possess remarkable accuracy in orientation and navigation, which involves various compass systems including the magnetic compass. Identifying the primary magnetosensor remains a fundamental open question. Cryptochromes (Cry) have been shown to be magnetically sensitive, and Cry4a from a migratory songbird seems to show enhanced magnetic sensitivity compared to Cry4a from resident species.

Double cones in the avian retina form an oriented mosaic which might facilitate magnetoreception and/or polarized light sensing.

To navigate between breeding and wintering grounds, night-migratory songbirds are aided by a light-dependent magnetic compass sense and maybe also by polarized light vision. Although the underlying mechanisms for magnetoreception and polarized light sensing remain unclear, double cone photoreceptors in the avian retina have been suggested to represent the primary sensory cells. To use these senses, birds must be able to separate the directional information from the Earth's magnetic field and/or light polarization from variations in light intensity.

Broadband 75-85 MHz radiofrequency fields disrupt magnetic compass orientation in night-migratory songbirds consistent with a flavin-based radical pair magnetoreceptor.

The light-dependent magnetic compass sense of night-migratory songbirds can be disrupted by weak radiofrequency fields. This finding supports a quantum mechanical, radical-pair-based mechanism of magnetoreception as observed for isolated cryptochrome 4, a protein found in birds' retinas. The exact identity of the magnetically sensitive radicals in cryptochrome is uncertain in vivo, but their formation seems to require a bound flavin adenine dinucleotide chromophore and a chain of four tryptophan residues within the protein.

Electromagnetic 0.1-100 kHz noise does not disrupt orientation in a night-migrating songbird implying a spin coherence lifetime of less than 10 µs.

According to the currently prevailing theory, the magnetic compass sense in night-migrating birds relies on a light-dependent radical-pair-based mechanism. It has been shown that radio waves at megahertz frequencies disrupt magnetic orientation in migratory birds, providing evidence for a quantum-mechanical origin of the magnetic compass. Still, many crucial properties, e.

Very weak oscillating magnetic field disrupts the magnetic compass of songbird migrants.

Previously, it has been shown that long-distance migrants, garden warblers (), were disoriented in the presence of narrow-band oscillating magnetic field (1.403 MHz OMF, 190 nT) during autumn migration. This agrees with the data of previous experiments with European robins ().