Why do birds stand on one foot?

 

Why do migratory birds fly in a V-shape?

The world of birds is one of the wonderful worlds that holds many secrets, and scientists always discover new information every day that contributes to the development of useful technologies for humanity as a whole.

Before the invention of aircraft, ancient scientists did not have any idea why birds take the shape of the letter V when making their seasonal migrations, so this matter remained a secret for a long time until things began to unfold with the study of the mechanism used by birds to fly, which contributed to knowing the secret of this Fantastic formations

Why do migratory birds fly in a V-shape?

This method makes the birds travel the largest possible distance by taking advantage of the total air thrust formed by the entire flock, thus reducing the effort made during flight.

When a bird flies, the tips of its wings create a spinning vortex. A vortex, as its name implies, is a swirl of air moving around the heads of a bird's wings. As a result, the air behind the bird is pushed down, while the air behind and on the sides is pushed up. Because of this, the air flow is either up or down. Now, if a bird flies into the airflow zone, it gets free lift from the air and thus gets a great deal of air support, without making much effort on its own. This is why birds that follow the leader may not have to flap their wings as many times as the leader of the group, they can just glide and stay mid-air.

In a more pronounced sense, migratory birds are positioned in symmetrical formations to obtain additional thrust by the movement of birds flying in front. Where the bird moves forward, moving its wings downward, which results in the movement of air from the bottom to the top. This air current helps lift the birds into the rest of the line without extra effort.

Recent studies have shown that this formation in flight enables the entire flock to travel a distance of 71% more than if the bird flew alone, and some birds can even cross entire continents in this genius way.

 Not only that, but the researchers found that the birds alternate their places in the flock in an amazing way.

When one of the birds feels tired, it returns to the back so that it can take advantage of the air current resulting from the flock as a whole and thus reduces the effort expended to the maximum degree, and then after a while it returns to its place again to make way for another bird to rest

A new study on ibis suggests that these large-winged birds take certain positions during flight so that they take advantage of the air current generated by the flapping of the birds' wings in the foreground.

Researchers are wondering if birds can synchronize their wing beats in such a perfect way. “In order to be able to accurately determine where the air currents are and how the birds are positioned within the flock, we must conduct experiments by making the birds fly through wind tunnels, which is a process,” says David Lintink, a mechanical engineer at Stanford University in California. It requires diving into details more than the process of recording data via electronic chips.”

Researchers still do not know how birds can find air spots suitable for flight, but they suspect that birds detect this by looking or that they sense air currents with their feathers.

Alternatively, the birds keep flying and searching until they find locations where there is less air resistance.

In future studies, researchers will rely on the expansion of other types of birds such as pigeons and geese, and will also study the way the animals follow to determine the path, the way the migration journey will be, and the effects that may occur on the flock if the flight leader makes a mistake.

The birds were also keen during their flight on this coordination to move their wings according to a precise timing. It perfectly synchronizes the beat of its wings to match the air flowing from the wings of a bird moving in the foreground. The V mode is the best mode for observing the leader in front and extracting the right movement and timing.

How is the leader of the birds selected to be at the forefront of the flock?

As it turns out, there is no consistent leader for the herd. The birds take turns standing in front. Bernhard Voelkel and colleagues from the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford conducted an astonishing study to learn more about flight behaviors and discovered that a bird spends nearly 32% of its time flying behind another bird, and a similar amount of time driving.