Optimal Bird Migration: The Relative Importance of Time, Energy, and Safety

Alerstam, Thomas; Lindström, Åke

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-74542-3_22

Cited by 1,026 publications

(1,004 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…From data presented by Hildén and Saurola (1982), Alerstam and Lindström (1990) showed that the speed of migration of birds in autumn decreased as the season progressed. Given that the speed of migration to a large extent may be governed by the fuel deposition rate (Alerstam and Lindström 1990;Lindström 1991), an important reason for the seasonal decline in migration speed may be the declining time available for feeding.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Given that the speed of migration to a large extent may be governed by the fuel deposition rate (Alerstam and Lindström 1990;Lindström 1991), an important reason for the seasonal decline in migration speed may be the declining time available for feeding.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has become increasingly clear that many migrants try to maximize speed of migration (distance covered per day, including time spent on both flying and fueling; Alerstam and Lindström 1990). To achieve this speed, the birds should maximize fuel deposition rates, which is normally best accomplished by maximizing energy intake.…”

Section: Physiological and Biochemical Zoologymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Maximum Daily Energy Intake: It Takes Time to Lift the Metabolic Ceiling

Kvist

Lindström

2000

Physiological and Biochemical Zoology

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Physiological and Biochemical Zoologymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Maximum Daily Energy Intake: It Takes Time to Lift the Metabolic Ceiling

Kvist

Lindström

2000

Physiological and Biochemical Zoology

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“…Bats travelling long distances during a single night may be subjected to time-related costs involving, for example, the need to allocate time for foraging and exploring new feeding areas. Hence, such time-constrained travel may lead to adaptation to time-minimization of the journey [20]. It has been shown that commuting bats may use the maximum range speed (V mr ) to minimize their cost of transport [21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Commuting fruit bats beneficially modulate their flight in relation to wind

et al. 2014

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When animals move, their tracks may be strongly influenced by the motion of air or water, and this may affect the speed, energetics and prospects of the journey. Flying organisms, such as bats, may thus benefit from modifying their flight in response to the wind vector. Yet, practical difficulties have so far limited the understanding of this response for free-ranging bats. We tracked nine straw-coloured fruit bats (Eidolon helvum) that flew 42.5 + 17.5 km (mean + s.d.) to and from their roost near Accra, Ghana. Following detailed atmospheric simulations, we found that bats compensated for wind drift, as predicted under constant winds, and decreased their airspeed in response to tailwind assistance such that their groundspeed remained nearly constant. In addition, bats increased their airspeed with increasing crosswind speed. Overall, bats modulated their airspeed in relation to wind speed at different wind directions in a manner predicted by a two-dimensional optimal movement model. We conclude that sophisticated behavioural mechanisms to minimize the cost of transport under various wind conditions have evolved in bats. The bats' response to the wind is similar to that reported for migratory birds and insects, suggesting convergent evolution of flight behaviours in volant organisms.

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“…The speed of cross-country flight during migration is considered an important component in the fitness of migrating birds [12,19]. Because bird ground speed is the sum of the bird's airspeed and the speed of the flow in the direction headed by the bird, tailwind increases bird ground speed, whereas headwind decreases it.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Migration by soaring or flapping: numerical atmospheric simulations reveal that turbulence kinetic energy dictates bee-eater flight mode

et al. 2011

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Aerial migrants commonly face atmospheric dynamics that may affect their movement and behaviour. Specifically, bird flight mode has been suggested to depend on convective updraught availability and tailwind assistance. However, this has not been tested thus far since both bird tracks and meteorological conditions are difficult to measure in detail throughout extended migratory flyways. Here, we applied, to our knowledge, the first comprehensive numerical atmospheric simulations by mean of the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) to study how meteorological processes affect the flight behaviour of migrating birds. We followed European bee-eaters (Merops apiaster) over southern Israel using radio telemetry and contrasted bird flight mode (flapping, soaring -gliding or mixed flight) against explanatory meteorological variables estimated by RAMS simulations at a spatial grid resolution of 250 Â 250 m 2 . We found that temperature and especially turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) determine bee-eater flight mode, whereas, unexpectedly, no effect of tailwind assistance was found. TKE during soaring -gliding was significantly higher and distinct from TKE during flapping. We propose that applying detailed atmospheric simulations over extended migratory flyways can elucidate the highly dynamic behaviour of air-borne organisms, help predict the abundance and distribution of migrating birds, and aid in mitigating hazardous implications of bird migration.

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Optimal Bird Migration: The Relative Importance of Time, Energy, and Safety

Cited by 1,026 publications

References 24 publications

Maximum Daily Energy Intake: It Takes Time to Lift the Metabolic Ceiling

Maximum Daily Energy Intake: It Takes Time to Lift the Metabolic Ceiling

Commuting fruit bats beneficially modulate their flight in relation to wind

Migration by soaring or flapping: numerical atmospheric simulations reveal that turbulence kinetic energy dictates bee-eater flight mode

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