Well, it’s autumn again (and that means starting your science fair project!). Time to mess up the giant pile of leaves that your neighbor just spent an hour raking up! (But don’t say you heard it here!) It’s also time for one of the most amazing feats in the natural world—the migration of birds. Have you ever wondered how migratory birds find their way from the northern latitudes, such as Canada, the northern US, Europe and Asia, to the warm tropical regions where they spend the winter months??

Well, it looks like scientists may have found the answer (no surprise here!). Would you believe they use road signs? Not ordinary road sign of course, but it seems that migratory birds do have a special type of vision that allows them to see the lines created by the Earth’s magnetic field. They follow these markers to get to their destination. This may sound pretty strange to you, but the process works a lot like human vision. When humans see an object, they are actually seeing light that is reflected from the object. And what is light? Light is radiation, a unique combination of a particle and a wave, which special sensors in our eyes pick up. Once they sense the radiation, a signal is sent to the brain, which interprets it as an object. A similar thing happens when birds “see” magnetic radiation. Sensors pick up the radiation and send a signal to the bird’s brain, which receives a sort of visual compass reading that directs it where to fly!