Conservator, Science, Waterfowl

How do ducks navigate long distances during migration?

The Duck Doctors are in, sharing insights from the wild!

By Rose Lacombe April 21, 2026

Every spring and fall, ducks travel some hundreds to thousands of miles between their wintering and breeding grounds. Many female ducks return to the places where they hatched and fledged. This ability to return to the same places year after year with remarkable precision might have you asking the question: How do ducks navigate such long distances?

Migration: More than just direction

Though most people might use GPS nowadays, ducks have a variety of ways to orient themselves throughout migration. It isn’t only a matter of picking the right direction but being able to contextualize their destination in a massive landscape. One small mistake at the beginning of their journey could lead ducks thousands of kilometres off course.

Guided by sun and stars

First up, ducks use celestial navigation. During the day, migrating ducks will use the position of the sun to orient themselves. They also rely on polarized light patterns, which help determine the sun’s position, even when it isn’t directly visible.

At night, they switch to using the stars as a compass. Experiments in planetariums have shown that migratory birds can orient themselves correctly under a normal night sky. When scientists shifted the North Star’s position artificially, the birds also adjusted their orientation, providing support for their reliance on stellar cues.

Reading the landscape

Much like people, migrating ducks also use landmarks as navigational aids. They can recognize large landscape markers like coastlines, mountain ridges and major river systems. Rather than being used as exact navigational instructions, these features help reinforce direction and assist in fine‑tuning migration paths.

Tuned to the Earth itself

Lastly, and coolest in my opinion, is when migrating waterfowl use their ability of magnetoreception to navigate. Many birds can sense the Earth’s magnetic field and use it as a secondary compass, which is especially helpful in low-visibility conditions, when relying on sight for navigation is trickier.

Experiments show that when scientists place magnets on the heads of captive birds, their orientation becomes disrupted, even on sunny days when they have other navigational methods they can use, showing how important their use of the Earth’s magnetic fields may be.

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Migration is an incredible journey, and ducks rely on an equally incredible toolkit to find their way: using the sun, stars, landmarks and even the Earth’s magnetic field.

Rose Lacombe

There’s still so much to learn about how these birds navigate our world, and that’s what makes studying them so fascinating.

As a research biologist with the Institute for Wetland and Waterfowl Research (IWWR), the science arm of Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) that guides the work of conservation staff, and an avian ecologist by training, you could say that Rose Lacombe is wild about nature.

Her love for the outdoors and for wildlife took root while working at a summer camp in Ontario’s stunning Algonquin Provincial Park, while her studies in ecology helped that passion blossom.

“It was confirmation for me that I was on the right path when I started doing field work and working outside with birds,” she shares.

In the course of that work, Rose has uncovered boatloads of fascinating facts about our feathered friends, including how they navigate.

Curious to learn more about ducks and DUC’s science?

Check out the Duck Doctors playlist on our YouTube channel and dive into more of the science behind wetlands, wildlife and the species we love.

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