Data from: Gliding for a free lunch: biomechanics of foraging flight in Common Swifts (Apus apus)
Although the biomechanics of animal flight have been well studied in laboratory apparatus such as wind tunnels for many years, the applicability of these data to natural flight behaviour has been examined in few instances and mostly in the context of long-distance migration. Here we use rotational s...
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ftdryad:oai:v1.datadryad.org:10255/dryad.182960 2023-05-15T14:17:15+02:00 Data from: Gliding for a free lunch: biomechanics of foraging flight in Common Swifts (Apus apus) Hedrick, Tyson Pichot, Cecile Margerie, Emmanuel de Rennes France 2018-09-12T14:26:19Z http://hdl.handle.net/10255/dryad.182960 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.89b2c4s.1 unknown doi:10.5061/dryad.89b2c4s.1/1.1 doi:10.5061/dryad.89b2c4s.1 http://hdl.handle.net/10255/dryad.182960 flight foraging glide polar gliding kinematics rotational stereo videography Article 2018 ftdryad https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.89b2c4s.1 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.89b2c4s.1/1.1 2020-01-01T16:10:49Z Although the biomechanics of animal flight have been well studied in laboratory apparatus such as wind tunnels for many years, the applicability of these data to natural flight behaviour has been examined in few instances and mostly in the context of long-distance migration. Here we use rotational stereo-videography to record the free-flight trajectories of foraging common swifts. We find that despite their exquisite manoeuvring capabilities, the swifts only rarely performed high-acceleration turns. More surprisingly, we also found that despite feeding on tiny insects likely moving with ambient flow, the birds adjust their air speed to optimize cost of transport over distance. Finally, swifts spent only 25% of their time flapping; the majority of time (71%) was spent in extended wing gliding during which the average power expended for changes in speed or elevation was 0.84 W kg-1 and not significantly different from 0. Thus, gliding swifts extracted sufficient environmental energy to pay the cost of flight during foraging. Article in Journal/Newspaper Apus apus Dryad Digital Repository (Duke University) |
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Open Polar |
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Dryad Digital Repository (Duke University) |
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unknown |
topic |
flight foraging glide polar gliding kinematics rotational stereo videography |
spellingShingle |
flight foraging glide polar gliding kinematics rotational stereo videography Hedrick, Tyson Pichot, Cecile Margerie, Emmanuel de Data from: Gliding for a free lunch: biomechanics of foraging flight in Common Swifts (Apus apus) |
topic_facet |
flight foraging glide polar gliding kinematics rotational stereo videography |
description |
Although the biomechanics of animal flight have been well studied in laboratory apparatus such as wind tunnels for many years, the applicability of these data to natural flight behaviour has been examined in few instances and mostly in the context of long-distance migration. Here we use rotational stereo-videography to record the free-flight trajectories of foraging common swifts. We find that despite their exquisite manoeuvring capabilities, the swifts only rarely performed high-acceleration turns. More surprisingly, we also found that despite feeding on tiny insects likely moving with ambient flow, the birds adjust their air speed to optimize cost of transport over distance. Finally, swifts spent only 25% of their time flapping; the majority of time (71%) was spent in extended wing gliding during which the average power expended for changes in speed or elevation was 0.84 W kg-1 and not significantly different from 0. Thus, gliding swifts extracted sufficient environmental energy to pay the cost of flight during foraging. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hedrick, Tyson Pichot, Cecile Margerie, Emmanuel de |
author_facet |
Hedrick, Tyson Pichot, Cecile Margerie, Emmanuel de |
author_sort |
Hedrick, Tyson |
title |
Data from: Gliding for a free lunch: biomechanics of foraging flight in Common Swifts (Apus apus) |
title_short |
Data from: Gliding for a free lunch: biomechanics of foraging flight in Common Swifts (Apus apus) |
title_full |
Data from: Gliding for a free lunch: biomechanics of foraging flight in Common Swifts (Apus apus) |
title_fullStr |
Data from: Gliding for a free lunch: biomechanics of foraging flight in Common Swifts (Apus apus) |
title_full_unstemmed |
Data from: Gliding for a free lunch: biomechanics of foraging flight in Common Swifts (Apus apus) |
title_sort |
data from: gliding for a free lunch: biomechanics of foraging flight in common swifts (apus apus) |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10255/dryad.182960 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.89b2c4s.1 |
op_coverage |
Rennes France |
genre |
Apus apus |
genre_facet |
Apus apus |
op_relation |
doi:10.5061/dryad.89b2c4s.1/1.1 doi:10.5061/dryad.89b2c4s.1 http://hdl.handle.net/10255/dryad.182960 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.89b2c4s.1 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.89b2c4s.1/1.1 |
_version_ |
1766289141025210368 |