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 used rotational...
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fthighwire:oai:open-archive.highwire.org:jexbio:221/22/jeb186270 2023-05-15T14:17:15+02:00 Gliding for a free lunch: biomechanics of foraging flight in common swifts (Apus apus) Hedrick, Tyson L. Pichot, Cécile de Margerie, Emmanuel 2018-11-19 15:00:33.0 text/html http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/short/221/22/jeb186270 https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.186270 en eng The Company of Biologists Ltd http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/short/221/22/jeb186270 http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.186270 Copyright (C) 2018, Company of Biologists RESEARCH ARTICLE TEXT 2018 fthighwire https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.186270 2018-12-30T19:27:14Z 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 used rotational stereo-videography to record the free-flight trajectories of foraging common swifts. We found 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 probably 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 their 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. Text Apus apus HighWire Press (Stanford University) Journal of Experimental Biology 221 22 |
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HighWire Press (Stanford University) |
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English |
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RESEARCH ARTICLE |
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RESEARCH ARTICLE Hedrick, Tyson L. Pichot, Cécile de Margerie, Emmanuel Gliding for a free lunch: biomechanics of foraging flight in common swifts (Apus apus) |
topic_facet |
RESEARCH ARTICLE |
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 used rotational stereo-videography to record the free-flight trajectories of foraging common swifts. We found 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 probably 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 their 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 |
Text |
author |
Hedrick, Tyson L. Pichot, Cécile de Margerie, Emmanuel |
author_facet |
Hedrick, Tyson L. Pichot, Cécile de Margerie, Emmanuel |
author_sort |
Hedrick, Tyson L. |
title |
Gliding for a free lunch: biomechanics of foraging flight in common swifts (Apus apus) |
title_short |
Gliding for a free lunch: biomechanics of foraging flight in common swifts (Apus apus) |
title_full |
Gliding for a free lunch: biomechanics of foraging flight in common swifts (Apus apus) |
title_fullStr |
Gliding for a free lunch: biomechanics of foraging flight in common swifts (Apus apus) |
title_full_unstemmed |
Gliding for a free lunch: biomechanics of foraging flight in common swifts (Apus apus) |
title_sort |
gliding for a free lunch: biomechanics of foraging flight in common swifts (apus apus) |
publisher |
The Company of Biologists Ltd |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/short/221/22/jeb186270 https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.186270 |
genre |
Apus apus |
genre_facet |
Apus apus |
op_relation |
http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/short/221/22/jeb186270 http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.186270 |
op_rights |
Copyright (C) 2018, Company of Biologists |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.186270 |
container_title |
Journal of Experimental Biology |
container_volume |
221 |
container_issue |
22 |
_version_ |
1766289138419499008 |