Spatial cognition is a field of research that investigates the basis of human and animal navigation and orientation. Many animals possess excellent spatial abilities like homing and migration that can be found across the animal kingdom. The hippocampus is an essential brain area for memory formation and spatial cognition in both mammals and birds, which has been shown physiologically in the form of place and head-direction cells as well as functionally through for example ablation studies. However, in contrast to mammals, the precise pattern of hippocampal spatial processing is still rather unknown for birds, especially pigeons. To gain deeper insights into the neuronal signature of spatial memory in pigeons, we conducted a spatial discrimination task (experimental group) and a feature-based discrimination task (control group) in a hexagonal area to investigate learning behavior as well as the underlying neuronal activation patterns using immediate early genes. Moreover, we quantified nitric oxide and doublecortin in both groups, which are two other neurochemical markers that have been associated with spatial learning in mammals. Overall, we found task-related differences in the speed of learning the respective tasks furthermore DeepLabCut analysis revealed differences in locomotion strategies. Additionally, we found differences in hippocampal expression profiles of ZENK, NADPH and DCX between the experimental (spatial discrimination) and control (feature-based discrimination) groups but only in specific hippocampal subdivisions. It can thus be concluded that spatial learning is processed in specific subareas of the pigeon hippocampus as well as that it leads to an increase of neuronal recruitment.