EMF Evidence Library
Research library/Wildlife & environment/ECO-006
ECO-006Original text reviewed

Double-blind broadband RF disruption of a bird magnetic compass

Schwarze et al. · 2016 · Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience

The reported 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.

Reading it carefully

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°.

Inside the study

Exposure conditions
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 & controls
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.
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.
Related research & shared cohorts
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.
The protection question raised
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.
Source verification
Original full methods, Table 1, Figures 5-7 and disclosures reviewed via Scite and PMC XML.
Where to find the result
Table 1; Time-dependent Fields; Data Collection; Figure 6; Discussion; Funding.
Editorial notices
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 of interest
Authors declare no commercial or financial relationships constituting potential conflicts.

Reviews to read alongside

Related syntheses and proposals in the separate review collection. These are topical reading links, not additional independent experiments.

Original publication

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.

Plain-text record