How birds find their way during migration ?

Birds have excellent vision and rely on visual landmarks for local and long-distance migration. They use key land features such as mountains, rivers, coasts or even large buildings.

There are three types of "compasses" a bird uses to find its way. Birds can use the sun, the stars and the Earth's magnetic field.

1.Birds use the sun as a compass. They use the positions of the sun during the day to navigate. They also can use the setting sun as an indication of due west.

2.Night flyers use celestial navigation, which means they find their way by knowing the patterns of the stars in the sky, and by knowing special stars like the North Star. In their first year of life, birds memorize the position of the constellations in relation to the North Star. These star patterns stay the same even though the Earth moves through space, making the constellations appear to move to different spots in the sky during the year.

3.Birds have tiny grains of a mineral called magnetite just above their nostrils. This mineral may help them to navigate using the Earth's magnetic field, which tells the bird what direction is true north.