Flight and other locomotion in

birds
 Lift of a wing
• Bernoulli effect – pressure is inversely
related to number of particles moving in a
single direction (fluids).

• Newton’s 3rd Law – for every action there

is an equal and opposite reaction.
Static airfoil (wing)
 Angle of Attack

Vacuum

If angle of attack > ~5°, wing starts to produce vorticies. These can lead to “stall”
Solution = alula (bastard wing)
• Particularly important at
low speeds and high
angles of attack
 A
1°s

Low Speed (take-off and landing)

High Angle of Attack

Open-billed Stork
• Landing
 Eoaluavis
• Sanz et al. 1996 Nature
• Eoalulavis hoyasi
• Los Hoyas, Spain
• Goldfinch sized bird
• 115mya
• 30my after Archaeopteryx

• = low speeds
• = high maneuverability

Florescent induced photo

 Drag
• Resistance caused by friction of air moving over the
surface of the wing

• Induced drag occurs when the air flow separates from

the surface of a wing
– Air moves from high to low pressures
– “fills” vacuums created by wing

• Profile drag is due to the friction between the air and

bird moving through the air
– Minimized by “low profile” (aerodynamic anatomy)
– i.e. thin leading edge of wing
 Induced Drag
• Di - induced drag
• A - aspect ratio
• k - constant
• L - lift
• S - wing area
• Ve - airspeed
High speed • ρ - air density
Low speed

Di - drag

Ve - Airspeed
 Profile Drag

D is the force of drag,

ρ is the density of the fluid*,
v is the velocity of the object relative to the fluid,
A is the reference area, and
Cd is the drag coefficient

Airspeed
Drag Curve

aka Profile drag

• 2 gaits of a bird
– Vortex-ring gait
• Low speeds
– Continuous-vortex gait
• High speeds
 Flight Recap
• Amount of drag is affected by:
– Body size
– Speed
– Wing’s surface area and shape
– Environmental factors
• Viscosity etc.
 Wing shape
• Aspect Ratio – Length / width
– Range = 1.5-18.0
 Gliding Wing
• Laysan Albatross
High Speed Wing
Explosive, Maneuverable Wing
• Grouse Wing
Table of Wing loading – body mass / wing area

Species or group Wing-loading

Swallows 0.15
Passerines 0.2 - 0.4
Hawks 0.3 - 0.5
Waterfowl 0.8 - 1.0
Pied-billed Grebe 1.2
Loons 1.4 link
 Wing loading
low high
 Contribution of the hindlimbs
• Varies over species
– May be very important (Starlings 80-90% of
take-off velocity due to hindlimb contribution)

Earls 2000
• Hummingbirds
– 46-59%
– Variability
depends upon
motivation
• Autonomous – 59%
• Escape – 47%
• Aggressive (chasing
conspecific male) – 46%

Tobalske et al. 2004

 The leading edge Vortex
• The “LEV” of a swift Videler et al. (2004)

Low pressure zone

On top of wing
Wing wants to “fill” the low pressure zone thereby creating lift
Can be used for maneuverability (each wing independent)
Wing slotting
 Different Modes of Flight
• 1. Gliding – Vs/V (sinking speed – horizontal speed)
– Glide ratio of 20

• 2. Soaring – maintain altitude w/o flapping.

– Thermals (see drawing) and updrafts (“slope soaring”)
– Dynamic soaring

“Obstruction lift”
Or “slope soaring”
• Hawk mountain
east

Kettle valley
 Dynamic Soaring
• 1 - climb
(windward
flight);
• 2 - upper
curve (change
of flight
direction to
leeward);
• 3 - descent
(leeward
flight); &
• 4 - lower
curve (change
of flight
direction to
windward)
(Sachs 2005).

video
 3. Flapping flight
• Video of a starling in a wind-tunnel
• Downstroke (“power stroke”) – flex wing depressors - lift.
• Upstroke (“recovery stroke”) – flex wing elevators - minimize drag.
– Slotting

Cockatiel flying at 1m/sec

 Flapping (cont)
• Flapping is usually intermittent in small species

Flap-glide Flap-bound

• And varies w/ speed

Budgerigars in wind-tunnel (Tobalske and Dial 1994)

 4. Hovering
• Flapping while maintaining horizontal position
• Examples:
 5? Formation Flying
• Saves energy (11-14%)
• Coupled with full belly – even more (Kvist et al. 2001)

low

high
Note on metabolism and flight

Predicted
Observed
 Other forms of locomotion in birds
• Running, walking, hopping, waddling
– Head bobbing
– Ostriches
• Climbing
– Nuthatches, woodpeckers
• Swimming
– Ducks
• Diving
– Penguins, Auks