Migratory blackcap bird brain mapped for the first time, opening a new era of 3D digital atlases

A migratory bird brain, the Eurasian blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla), has been mapped for the first time using high-resolution light microscopy. The open-source software tools developed, and the detailed processes published, form a foundation for new brain atlases to be built for any species, providing a valuable resource for neuroscience worldwide. Created by a team from the Sainsbury Wellcome Center at UCL and the University of Oldenburg, Germany, a paper describing the atlas has been published today (20 April 2026) in Current Biology.