Exterior aircraft navigation light for an aircraft having a nominal forward flight direction and being able to fly into the nominal forward flight direction as well as into a plurality of further flight directions, such as sideways or backwards, wherein the exterior aircraft navigation light has at least one light emission unit (21, 22, 23, 24) and control circuitry coupled to the at least one light emission unit (21, 22, 23, 24), wherein the exterior aircraft navigation light is configured such that each of the at least one light emission unit (21, 22, 23, 24) has a unit-specific light emission direction that has a predefined horizontal angle with respect to the nominal forward flight direction, wherein each of the at least one light emission unit (21, 22, 23, 24) comprises: a multi-color light source (21b, 22b, 23b, 24b) configured to emit red light, white light and green light, and an optical system (21a, 22a, 23a, 24a) for conditioning the red light, the white light and the green light emitted by the multi-color light source, wherein the control circuitry is configured, as a response to a momentary flight direction of the aircraft and the unit-specific light emission direction, to control the multi-color light source (21b, 22b, 23b, 24b) such that the respective light emission unit (21, 22, 23, 24) emits one of the red light, the white light and the green light, and wherein the control circuitry has a control unit comprising a signal input for receiving a flight direction signal indicative of the momentary flight direction, wherein the control unit is configured, as a response to the flight direction signal and the unit-specific light emission direction, to select said one of the red light, the white light and the green light and to control the multi-color light source (21b, 22b, 23b, 24b) accordingly for each of the at least one light emission unit, characterized in that the control unit is configured to determine a momentary horizontal emission angle for each of the at least one light emission unit (21, 22, 23, 24) by relating the momentary flight direction to the respective unit-specific light emission direction in a horizontal plane, wherein the control unit is configured to select the red light, if the momentary horizontal emission angle is between 0° and 110°, to select the green light, if the momentary horizontal emission angle is between 0° and -110°, and to select the white light otherwise, and wherein each of the at least one light emission unit (21, 22, 23, 24) has a horizontal light emission opening angle of between 5° and 15° around the unit-specific light emission direction. a multi-color light source (21b, 22b, 23b, 24b) configured to emit red light, white light and green light, and an optical system (21a, 22a, 23a, 24a) for conditioning the red light, the white light and the green light emitted by the multi-color light source, wherein the control circuitry is configured, as a response to a momentary flight direction of the aircraft and the unit-specific light emission direction, to control the multi-color light source (21b, 22b, 23b, 24b) such that the respective light emission unit (21, 22, 23, 24) emits one of the red light, the white light and the green light, and