Edrich W, Keeton W T
Z Tierpsychol. 1977 Aug;44(4):389-401. doi: 10.1111/j.1439-0310.1977.tb01003.x.
Three series of experiments were conducted to determine whether the orientational and homing behavior of feral pigeons ("Commons") in the U.S.A. is comparable to that of homing pigeons. Wild-caught adult and juvenile Commons showed meaningful nonrandom orientation when released at unfamiliar sites. When such birds were phaseshifted 6 h fast, their vanishing bearings were deflected approximately 90 degrees counterclockwise, thus indicating use of the time-compensated sun compass. Young Commons reared and trained with Homers of the same age differed behaviorally from the Homers in a variety of ways and many fewer returned home from training and test releases, but the season for the fewer returns appeared to be more concerned with social behavior than with orientation capability.
进行了三组实验，以确定美国野生家鸽（“Commons”）的定向和归巢行为是否与信鸽的行为相当。野生捕获的成年和幼年Commons在不熟悉的地点放飞时表现出有意义的非随机定向。当这些鸟被快速相移6小时时，它们消失时的方位角逆时针偏转约90度，从而表明它们使用了时间补偿太阳罗盘。与同龄信鸽一起饲养和训练的幼年Commons在行为上与信鸽有多种不同，并且从训练和测试放飞中返回家中的数量要少得多，但返回数量较少的季节似乎更多地与社会行为有关，而不是与定向能力有关。
