How do Birds Fly in Strong Winds?

When navigating strong crosswinds birds adjust the angle of their body into the wind, whilst keeping their head fixed on the target destination, in order to maintain forwards motion.
Experiments conducted by Daniel Quinn at the University of Virginia use live lovebirds in a wind tunnel painted to simulate a forest environment. The lovebirds are seen to consistently angle their body in the direction of the wind, while keeping their head oriented towards the landing perch. This behaviour is very similar to that used by a pilot of a fixed-wing aircraft, but in the case of birds they are also able to control the flapping speed of their wings to assist. The hope is to be able to use this knowledge to improve the stability of drones when flying in strong winds.
Research by Daniel Quinn at the University of Virginia. Interview with University of Oxford Mathematician Dr Tom Crawford.
This video is part of a collaboration between FYFD and the Journal of Fluid Mechanics featuring a series of interviews with researchers from the APS DFD 2017 conference.
Sponsored by FYFD, the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, and the UK Fluids Network. Produced by Tom Crawford and Nicole Sharp with assistance from A.J. Fillo.
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Featuring: D. Quinn et al. "How birds can negate gusts and maintain heading by crabbing into the wind passively"
meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.201...
Everyday observations show birds flying stably in strong lateral gusts in which aerial robots cannot operate reliably. However, the mechanisms that birds use to negate lateral gusts are unknown. Therefore, we studied the motions of lovebirds as they flew through strong gusts in a long mesh corridor. The corridor was painted to simulate a forest (vertical stripes), a lake (horizontal stripe), and a cave (dark with a small light at the end). Fan arrays outside the corridor imposed three wind conditions: still air, a uniform gust, and wind shear. We found that lovebirds consistently yaw their body into the wind direction, crabbing like a fixed-wing aircraft, while keeping their head oriented towards the landing perch, unlike aircraft. These results were the same for all three visual conditions, showing how lovebirds can even negate gusts in the dark with a faint point source as a target. Because the naive birds had never experienced gusts before, the gust mitigation behavior is innate. Motivated by these observations, we developed a physical model that shows how yaw corrections can be passive in flapping flight. Our model offers a foundation for understanding wind negation in birds and other flying animals and offers inspiration for aerial robots that are more robust to gusts.
PNAS Publication: "How lovebirds maneuver through lateral gusts with minimal visual information" Daniel Quinn, Daniel Kress, Eric Chang, Andrea Stein, Michal Wegrzynski, David Lentink Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jul 2019, 116 (30) 15033-15041; doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1903422116
Special thanks to:
Nicole Sharp
A. J. Fillo
Daniel Quinn

[@TomRocksMaths]

Petition to add the names of the birds as co-authors: SIGN BELOW.

[@1eV]

😂

[@5hirtandtieler]

Yes! Give the birds the credit they deserve!

[@1eV]

we have to stand against the systematic oppression of birbs in academia

[@SanneBerkhuizen]

I'm in

[@AEmiliusLives]

More bird representation NOW!

[@gaeb-hd4lf]

Nature is te best engineer

[@pamelahowe1870]

Great quick talk !

[@affshafee.rahman]

Thank you Tom for this amazing series on fluid dynamics. You may now have to take the blame for my sudden interest in Physics 😅

[@TomRocksMaths]

Happy to be blamed :)

[@prycehundley2982]

This is cool stuff

[@TomRocksMaths]

Glad you agree Pryce!

[@thomkeen3507]

It's not a problem for them because it was the scientists that made the wind cross, not the bird

[@ahmadtheaviationlover1937]

Birds are awesome creatures

[@TomRocksMaths]

amen

[@debbieferguson3142]

I feed birds everyday ESP little birds right niw I'm wondering where are they we got some gusty gusty, strong winds I dont think winds will led up anytime soon
Thank for Sharing!!!

[@TomRocksMaths]

Glad you enjoyed it Debbie!

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