This paper is part 2 of my "magnetic pulse trilogy"

Part 1: www.doi.org/10.1098/rsif...

for the most interesting 3rd Part see: doi.org/10.1098/rsif...

for some ecological insights into the magnetic sense for songbird migration Ecology see our dedicated review paper: doi.org/10.1111/brv....

Possible explanations for this finding are so extensive, that they would notfit into a bluesky post, so see the discussion of the paper itself: doi.org/10.1242/jeb....

(iv) the change in direction within the first 50-100 km. --> no bird group changed flight direction significantly

(iii) the direction in which the birds departed (in the first 5-20 km). This was a factor where former studies found differences after pulse treatment --> but here: no effect

(ii) the time within the night, when the bird depart and resume migration --> no significant difference.

We observed different stopover decisions using the #motus wildlife tracking system. [Blue is always the control group, red the group of birds, who recieved the magnetic pulse]:

(i) the probability of the bird resuming migration in the first night after the treatment --> no significant difference!

We tried to influence the proposed magnetic-particle based magnetoreceptor of migratory European Robins on Stopover on Helgoland by a short but strong magnetic pulse. According to current hypotheses this should disturb the magnetic map of the birds and should lead to altered migratory behaviour