Kenneth Able¹ & Wolfgang Wiltschko²

Able, K. & Wiltschko, W. 1999. Adaptive plasticity in migratory orientation mechanisms. In: Adams, N.J. & Slotow, R.H. (eds) Proc. 22 Int. Ornithol. Congr., Durban: 933. Johannesburg: BirdLife South Africa.

The involvement and interactions of multiple cues in migratory orientation have provided a research theme for two decades. Migrants must be able to cope with a variety of potential orientation problems encountered both in the development of orientation mechanisms as well as later during migration. Recent work from both laboratory and field, performed on diverse species, has revealed new insights into how the flexible avian orientation system functions. Mouritsen discusses the problems faced by a young songbird on its first migration and the apparent sufficiency of vector navigation to take the bird to its population's winter range. Weindler and Liepa discuss the interplay of innate information and early experience with celestial rotation and the earth's magnetic field in the ontogeny of migratory orientation. R. Wiltschko and W. Wiltschko will examine similar questions concerning the interaction of visual and magnetic cues during migration. In both cases, differences in response to these conflict situations will be discussed. Munro will report on an Australian diurnal migrant only distantly related to other Northern Hemisphere species that have been studied. Its migratory and orientation machinery is fundamentally similar to that of other passerines. Åkesson and Sandberg describe how migrants in the field may employ their flexible orientation systems in the face of changing ecological and energetic circumstances.