# ECO-006 — Double-blind broadband RF disruption of a bird magnetic compass

Why this matters
Migratory songbirds can use the Earth's magnetic field as a compass. In this blinded experiment, electromagnetic noise disrupted that orientation. It asks environmental assessors to consider sensory function. These were laboratory tests with kilohertz-to-megahertz noise, not a study of migration losses or an experiment with GHz phone signals.

Id: ECO-006

Author: Schwarze et al.

Full Authors: Susanne Schwarze; Nils-Lasse Schneider; Thomas Reichl; David Dreyer; Nele Lefeldt; Svenja Engels; Neville Baker; P. J. Hore; Henrik Mouritsen

Year: 2016

Title: Weak Broadband Electromagnetic Fields are More Disruptive to Magnetic Compass Orientation in a Night-Migratory Songbird (Erithacus rubecula) than Strong Narrow-Band Fields

Journal: Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience

Citation: Susanne Schwarze; Nils-Lasse Schneider; Thomas Reichl; David Dreyer; Nele Lefeldt; Svenja Engels; Neville Baker; P. J. Hore; Henrik Mouritsen. Weak Broadband Electromagnetic Fields are More Disruptive to Magnetic Compass Orientation in a Night-Migratory Songbird (Erithacus rubecula) than Strong Narrow-Band Fields. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. 2016;10:55. doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00055.

Doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00055

Pmid: 27047356

Topic: Environmental sensory function

Verification Group: Original text reviewed

Record Role: Original text reviewed

Featured: True

Exposure: European robins in shielded nonmagnetic chambers; broadband noise approximately 2 kHz-9 MHz versus dummy and narrow-band conditions, under normal and 120°-rotated geomagnetic fields. Table 1 reports broadband summed average magnetic intensity 35 nT; inspect the original spectra rather than treating accumulated max-hold values as instantaneous exposure.

Design: Double-blind exposure and independent orientation-paper assessment. Four migratory seasons, 2012-2014. Broadband comparison used the same 16 birds across conditions in autumn 2013. Prespecified inactivity/ambiguity exclusions; 4,098 individual tests across the programme.

Finding: Birds were disoriented under broadband noise but oriented under dummy and selected narrow-band conditions. The earlier claimed highly specific Larmor-frequency resonance was not replicated.

Statistics: Broadband: normal-field vector r=.17, P≈.60; rotated-field r=.19, P≈.56, n=16 each. Dummy: r=.54, P<.01 and rotated r=.49, P<.05.

Boundary: Captive-bird compass interference, not demonstrated population decline or human injury. MHz noise does not establish effects of GHz cellular signals. Within-condition Rayleigh tests alone do not quantify between-condition effects; some control orientation shifts differed from the expected 120°.

Related: Oldenburg/Oxford programme with Engels 2014 and Leberecht 2022. These are not three independent laboratories. Frankfurt/Ritz narrow-band experiments are an earlier separate programme.

Protection Question: Could exposure interfere with specialised wildlife senses under environmental conditions? Laboratory compass disruption is a functional endpoint, not population decline; this frequency range cannot establish effects from GHz phone signals.

Access: Original full methods, Table 1, Figures 5-7 and disclosures reviewed via Scite and PMC XML.

Locator: Table 1; Time-dependent Fields; Data Collection; Figure 6; Discussion; Funding.

Notice: No editorial notice surfaced in the Scite/primary-record checks used for this record; this is not a comprehensive clean-bill certification.

Funding: DARPA QuBE; ERC 340451; USAF AF9550-14-1-0095; German BMBF Varying Tunes; DFG MO1408/1-2 and GRK1885; Volkswagenstiftung.

Conflicts: Authors declare no commercial or financial relationships constituting potential conflicts.

Source Url: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00055

Retrieval Links: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2016.00055 | https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4801848/ | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27047356/

Verification Date: 2026-10-20