![]() ![]() Smaller birds have to work harder because they have a smaller wing to body ratio, so they tend not to fly as high. How high do migrating birds fly? Well, it varies. They move together but not in any particular formation their wings are so small compared to their body size that the aerodynamic advantage that geese have does not apply. ![]() Large flocks of crows, blackbirds, starlings, and sandpipers fly around during the day and birds like warblers, thrushes, and orioles migrate at night. Songbirds and shorebirds don’t fly in organized flocks. See more information at Aerospace Web on why birds fly in a V. These movements produce vortices (little whirlwinds) at the ends of the wings and birds that are adjacent to and a bit above the bird in front receive the benefit of uplift, reducing their energy use by 30% or so. On a downstroke, the wing of the bird pushes air downward physics requires that the same volume of air be displaced upward. The advantage to formation flying lies in what pilots call the “wingtip vortex.” All birds in a flock flap away against the friction of the air, producing lift but also drag. Actually, migrating birds have no leader watch and you will see that the lead bird changes often. Or that the first bird “broke the trail” and made flying easier for the rest of the flock. FLOCKS OF BIRDS FLYING IN PATTERNS TVMany years ago when I was a kid watching nature or hunting shows popular at that time, the TV screen would show a V skein of geese and the announcer would say something like “and if the leader of the flock is killed, the flock would be lost.” The idea was that the first bird was the leader and, being more experienced, knew the way to the wintering grounds. It’s always a sight to ducks and geese and cranes flying in their V or semi-V patterns. As the days lengthen as winter wanes, birds in northern climes get restless and finally uproot themselves from their southerly wintering areas. Focusing on the birds' ability to manage uncertainty while also maintaining consensus, they discovered that birds accomplish this (with the least effort) when each bird attends to seven neighbors.I was reminded by a flock of Sandhill Cranes flying overhead that it’s that time of year again – migration. analyzed still shots from videos of starlings in flight (flock size ranging from 440 to 2,600), then used a highly mathematical approach and systems theory to reach their conclusion. ![]() Their new contribution was to figure out that "when uncertainty in sensing is present, interacting with six or seven neighbors optimizes the balance between group cohesiveness and individual effort." already knew that starlings pay attention to a fixed number of their neighbors in the flock, regardless of flock density - seven, to be exact. Young and his colleagues investigated starlings' "remarkable ability to maintain cohesion as a group in highly uncertain environments and with limited, noisy information" - a nice description of what goes on in a murmuration. Just how do the starlings manage to fly in such an amazingly coordinated way?Ī few years ago, George F. ![]()
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