Hi Lisa C.! I'm not sure if you've done any reading since your post about a year ago, but I've heard something about the magnetic thing with eagles. If you're still interested, give it a look! Apparently they have an electrolyte fluid in their eyes which is sensitive to magnetic pole and helps them orient to their place of birth (has something to do with how and when their eye forms I've heard). I'm not sure where you can read more about it -- maybe a bird book? I could imagine other birds might have a similar fluid and instead of orienting to place of birth, they might simply follow it straight north in the direction of the magnetic pole. Anyway. Hope that helps! It seemed like the film offered a lot of suggestions as to how the birds/whales navigate, but they seemed very inconclusive. It would be interesting to see what other research has been done on these topics.   See 1 other reply