The lateral hypothalamic nucleus (LHy) is located in the dorsolateral hypothalamus of birds, and it is essential to many life processes. However, limited information is available about the role of lateral hypothalamic nucleus in mediating locomotive behaviors. Therefore, we investigated the structure and function of LHy in pigeons (Columba livia) using Nissl staining, immunohistochemical (IHC) staining methods and constant current stimulation in the current work. The results shows that LHy appears crescent in shape, and the three dimensional coordinate value range is: A: 5.0-8.0 mm, L: 0.7-1.2 mm, D: 9.5-10.3 mm. The dopaminergic neurons in the LHy were distributed in a small amount in a concentrated manner, while the glutamatergic neurons were in a large number of uniform distributions. The distribution of the two types of neurons at each coronal level showed a significant positive correlation (R 2 = 0.7516, P < 0.001). LHy mainly mediate forward movement (P < 0.01) and ipsilateral lateral movement (P < 0.001), and both of them are significantly affected by the intensity of electrical stimulation. Our results show that LHy can mediate the generation of directional behavior in birds, which provides reliable technical support for the research of animal robots.