The olfactory navigation hypothesis proposed to explain homing pigeon navigation predicts that birds learn the association of wind directions and wind-borne odours at home, and once displaced, determine the home direction on the basis of local environmental odours at the release site. This hypothesis was proposed on the basis of two kinds of empirical observations: (i) pigeons develop navigational abilities only if exposed to winds at the home loft, (ii) anosmic pigeons displaced to unfamiliar sites are unable to home. Soon after the discovery of the role of olfaction in pigeon navigation about 50 years ago, olfactory navigation became a subject of hot scientific debate. Until the beginning of the GPS era, the large body of evidence in support of olfactory navigation in pigeons, swifts and starlings consisted mainly of vanishing bearings and homing performance data. The use of GPS, allowing the observation of the pigeons’ behaviour en route provided further compelling evidence of the role of olfactory cues in pigeon navigation. The development of wildlife telemetry in the past two decades produced strong evidence about the use of olfactory cues, also in navigation of some species of wild birds. Wild birds artificially displaced both during migration, or during incubation showed impaired capacities to compensate displacements only if deprived of their sense of smell. Contrariwise, satellite telemetry failed to find any empirical validation for the existence of a navigational map based on magnetic cues in the tested species. In spite of the fact that the nature of the olfactory map in wild birds has not yet been elucidated, the development and miniaturisation of satellite technology will hopefully allow us in the near future to investigate in detail the features of the olfactory map found in some wild species, and to clarify the sensory basis of navigation in free-ranging small passerines.

为解释信鸽导航而提出的嗅觉导航假说预测，鸟类会在家里学习风向和风中气味的关联，一旦发生位移，根据释放地点的当地环境气味确定回家的方向。这个假设是基于两种经验观察提出的：（i）鸽子只有在主场鸽舍暴露在风中时才会发展导航能力，（ii）被转移到不熟悉的地方的无嗅觉的鸽子无法回家。大约 50 年前，嗅觉在鸽子导航中的作用被发现后不久，嗅觉导航就成为科学争论的热点。直到 GPS 时代开始，大量证据支持鸽子的嗅觉导航，swifts 和starlings 主要由消失轴承和归位性能数据组成。使用 GPS 可以观察鸽子在途中的行为，为嗅觉线索在鸽子导航中的作用提供了进一步令人信服的证据。过去二十年野生动物遥测技术的发展为嗅觉信号的使用提供了强有力的证据，也用于某些野生鸟类的导航。野生鸟类在迁徙期间或孵化期间人为流离失所，只有在失去嗅觉的情况下才显示出补偿流离失所的能力受损。相反，卫星遥测未能找到任何基于被测物种磁线索导航地图存在的实证验证。尽管野生鸟类嗅觉图的性质尚未阐明，