Pigeon GPS: New clues into how the birds find their way home

A study details a surprising new way into how pigeons find their way home.

Some animals including birds orient themselves using both the sun and Earth’s magnetic field as a compass.

But it’s not yet clear how exactly they do this.

Scientists searched for magnetic clues in pigeons' organs and found a strong signal in an unexpected place: immune cells in the liver.

More work is needed to verify the pigeons navigate this way and to firm up how these signals get to the brain.

The findings were published Thursday in the journal Science.