...to know whether the spatial cell types encoding places (map), directions (compass), and goals discovered in mammals also exist in birds, the most studied long-distance navigators. This project represents the journey of a 12-year quest to find neurons in the avian brain that code for processes that enable a computation of map and compass. Such neurons are key to understanding how short and long-distance navigation is represented in the brain. By combining the joint expertise of three labs, we will search with single cell recordings in freely moving and/or flying birds for avian hippocampal neurons that code for relevant spatial properties that inform the animal about its present location, goal, and heading direction.