Bird brains can flick switch to perceive Earth’s magnetic field  

White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis), Cap Tourmente National Wildlife Area, Quebec, Canada. Photo by Cephas (Wikimedia Commons) Understanding how animals make their way around in the world helps determine things humans are doing that might influence them Earth's magnetic field, generated by the flow of molten iron in the planet's inner core, extends out into space and protects us from cosmic radiation emitted by the Sun. It is also, remarkably, used by animals like salmon, sea turtles and migratory birds for navigation. But how? And why? A new study from researchers at Western's Advanced Facility for Avian Research (AFAR), home to the world's first hypobaric climatic wind tunnel for bird flight, explores a brain region called cluster N that migratory birds use to perceive Earth's magnetic field. The team discovered the region is activated very flexibly, meaning these birds have an ability to process, or ignore, geomagnetic information, just as you may attend to music when you are interested or tune it out when you are not. More specifically, the research team led by psychology PhD candidate Madeleine Brodbeck and AFAR co-director Scott MacDougall-Shackleton studied white-throated sparrows and found they were able to activate cluster N at night when they were motivated to migrate (to avoid prey and fly during cooler periods) and make it go dormant when they were resting at a stopover site. Psychology PhD candidate Madeleine Brodbeck and AFAR co-director Scott MacDougall-Shackleton This is the first demonstration of this brain region functioning in a North American bird species, as all prior research in this area was completed in Europe.