Nature has long inspired innovation, with animals offering clues to technologies shaped by evolution. As NSW Smart Sensing Network Environment & Agriculture Theme Lead Dr Tom Hu writes, the mystery of pigeon navigation highlights how such questions can spark advances across fields like geoscience, quantum sensing, and smart technologies.

It is well known that nature inspires scientific discovery.

In some cases, technologies we consider innovative are found to exist in nature first – refined over millions of years of evolution.

A classic example from my field is the photonic crystal, a material with unique light-manipulating properties.

It is naturally used by the blue morpho butterfly to create its vibrant blue wing coloration.

Rather than using pigments, nature opted to engineer these intricate microstructures to produce this striking hue.

Scientific research will continue to deliver useful innovations but occasionally looking at how animals use their senses can be genuinely insightful.

(Left) The wings of the blue morpho butterfly uses a photonic crystal to create its vibrant blue wing coloration, seen here (right) under 50:1 magnification. Credit: AdobeStock

In fact, understanding why certain evolutionary adaptations are so effective may offer new approaches to solving human challenges.

Enter the homing pigeon – a bird capable of navigating home from distances as far as 1,800 kilometres (roughly the distance from Hobart to Brisbane).

Throughout history pigeons have served humans by carrying vital messages.

For instance, during World War II, an Australian pigeon named Q879 flew 48 kilometres across New Guinea to deliver a crucial call for reinforcements during surprise attack from the Japanese.

Australian pigeon Q879 was awarded the Dickin Medal for bravery for delivering a crucial call for reinforcements during surprise attack from the Japanese. Credit: Australian War Memorial RELAWM30792

For this mission Q879 was awarded the Dickin Medal for bravery – an honour given to 74 animals in total, 32 of them pigeons.

This remarkable ability hinges on their innate navigation skills.

So how do they do it?

Pigeons rely on a range of senses. They use visual cues such as landmarks, the sun’s position, and even polarisation of sunlight for orientation.

There is also evidence that they use smell to stay on course.

Environmental changes will cause some of these methods to fail, so it’s known that the pigeons must be using a combination of these.

But while these cues may provide orientation (like a compass), the question remains on how they know where they are on a map.

One interesting research by Dr John Hagstrum suggests pigeons use low-frequency sound – infrasound - to build this map.

These deep vibrations, such as those produced by ocean activity resonating through Earth’s landmass, can travel hundreds of kilometres through the air.

Because local geology affects how infrasound travels, each location has a unique acoustic signature.

The hypothesis is that pigeons learn these signatures during flight allowing them to match orientation with a spatial ‘sound map’.

Dr Hagstrum's research suggests that pigeons navigate by learning and matching unique infrasound signatures of different locations to create a spatial ‘sound map’. Credit: Dr Tom Hu.

Some evidence supports this: in certain cases where pigeons get disoriented, researchers proposed that nearby mountain structures disrupted infrasound signals.

Pigeons also tend to avoid flying over lakes, which generate noisy infrasound from wind activity, further supporting this theory.

The exact mechanism behind the navigation is still being investigated.

Another idea was that pigeons could also be using the Earth’s magnetic field to create a kind of magnetic map.

This idea was tested by A/Prof David Simpson at the University of Melbourne, who used a quantum magnetometer to examine whether the pigeon’s inner ear contained enough magnetic material to support this.

This result was negative - there was not enough magnetic material to do this kind of navigation.

Still, disproving a theory is just as important as confirming one, and the use of quantum sensing in this context is fascinating.

Diamond-based quantum NV-sensing has matured a lot.

Some incredible Australian companies – like Q-CTRL and DeteqT - are using this technology for magnetic mapping during GPS-denied situations.

NSSN Environment & AgTech Theme Lead Dr Tom Hu.

We still don’t have a complete understanding of how pigeons find their way.

What’s remarkable is how one question about pigeon navigation has sparked collaboration across geoscience, atmospheric science, and quantum technology.

The NSW Smart Sensing Network plays a similar role in connecting multiple disciplines and translating research into technologies that benefit society.

If you’re interested in collaborating, or have some extra insights about pigeon navigation, we’d love to hear from you.
Contact Dr Tom Hu.

Guided by instinct? The sensors behind pigeon navigation