UBC Study Tracks 16 Pigeons' Eye Movements to Sharpen Drone Navigation

3 articles · Updated · CBC Sports · Jul 13

UBC researchers fitted about 16 homing pigeons with 27-gram backpack computers and head-mounted cameras, capturing in-flight eye movements that could guide smarter autonomous drone design.
The recordings showed pigeons make slow, subtle gaze shifts in flight and turn both eyes inward when landing, suggesting they actively gather higher-resolution and depth information rather than keeping their eyes fixed.
That finding challenges a common assumption about bird vision and contrasts with a recent Caltech study that found pigeons largely locked their eyes during shorter, lower flights through more cluttered spaces.
For drones, the study points to cameras that move while navigating instead of relying only on rigid sensors, potentially improving how autonomous aircraft judge speed, direction and nearby objects.