Raptor wing morphing with flight speed

Cheney, Jorn A.; Stevenson, Jonathan P J; Durston, Nicholas E; Maeda, Masateru; Song, Jialei; Megson-Smith, David; Windsor, Shane; Usherwood, James R.; Bomphrey, Richard J.

doi:10.1098/rsif.2021.0349

Cited by 30 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…The investigated ROM defines a bird’s physical capability to adjust its inertial characteristics and includes wing configurations outside of those probably used in flight. In addition, we assumed that the shoulder was set to allow a comparable wing orientation (see Methods ) and that the tail is furled, but these degrees of freedom have an important role in avian flight control 22 and warrant future morphing studies. Finally, we developed an open-source R package (AvInertia) that models birds as a composite structure of simple geometric objects and uses morphological data to calculate the centre of gravity and I for any bird using any wing configuration (Fig.…”

Section: Mainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Birds can transition between stable and unstable states via wing morphing

Harvey

Baliga

Wong

et al. 2022

Nature

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Birds morph their wing shape to accomplish extraordinary manoeuvres1–4, which are governed by avian-specific equations of motion. Solving these equations requires information about a bird’s aerodynamic and inertial characteristics5. Avian flight research to date has focused on resolving aerodynamic features, whereas inertial properties including centre of gravity and moment of inertia are seldom addressed. Here we use an analytical method to determine the inertial characteristics of 22 species across the full range of elbow and wrist flexion and extension. We find that wing morphing allows birds to substantially change their roll and yaw inertia but has a minimal effect on the position of the centre of gravity. With the addition of inertial characteristics, we derived a novel metric of pitch agility and estimated the static pitch stability, revealing that the agility and static margin ranges are reduced as body mass increases. These results provide quantitative evidence that evolution selects for both stable and unstable flight, in contrast to the prevailing narrative that birds are evolving away from stability6. This comprehensive analysis of avian inertial characteristics provides the key features required to establish a theoretical model of avian manoeuvrability.

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Section: Mainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Birds can transition between stable and unstable states via wing morphing

Harvey

Baliga

Wong

et al. 2022

Nature

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“…Differences in flight apparatus and behaviour among species of different evolutionary origin, and with different ecology, behaviour and flight styles are likely to influence cruising flight in performance (Alerstam et al 2007, Usherwood et al 2020. Many raptors shared similar size and attributes, but the modularity of wing shape during locomotion and action has a key role because avian wings are not rigid parts of the body (Klaasen et al 2016, Cheney et al 2021. Previously, it was also observed that typical flight strategies of some migrating raptors that climbing rate in thermal circling did not differ between species, indicating that chiefly the strength of thermal updrafts determined the climbing rate and that morphological features were less relevant.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The wing phalanges (Phalanx proximalis digiti majoris) of European Accipitriformes and Falconiformes

2021

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The authors compared the first phalanx of the second wing finger of 33 European diurnal raptors. The importance of studying this bone lies in the fact that, although it has diagnosable characteristics, it was practically neglected by osteologists and paleontologists. Thus, fossil materials can be identified through them, as well as those from owl pellets. The comparison was made possible by the comparative avian skeleton collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum. In a preliminary investigation we examined the morphological diversity of the first phalanx of the second wing finger among the different species. We used principal component (PC) analyses on measurements. The PC described the curvature of the anterior surface of the bone and the relative size of the distal and proximal epiphyses. The principal component analysis showed slightly overlapping in shape between the taxons but the accipitriform and falconiform birds diverged in the morphospace. The attributes and geometry of the first phalanx of the second wing finger reflects more on taxonomic background than flying behaviour. The avian wing is a complex and highly modulable structure, therefore, probably body mass and size affect flying performance than the other morphological features of this bone. The text is supplemented by 6 figures and one size table.

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“…Although this is different from the standard ornithological morphometrics [ 25 ], we felt that this way of measuring wing length is justified in the barn owl. The reason is that the wing is swept back distally (see also [ 4 , 17 ] so that the line from the tip of the wing (the tip of the tenth primary) to the base is almost parallel to the leading edge ( Figure 1 a,b).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Barn owls ( Tyto sp.) are interesting when studying flight [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. On the one hand, their aerodynamic adaptations are interesting [ 5 , 6 , 7 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Comparison of Aerodynamic Parameters in Two Subspecies of the American Barn Owl (Tyto furcata)

Wagner

Piedrahíta

2022

Animals

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Aerodynamic parameters, such as wing loading, are important indicators of flight maneuverability. We studied two subspecies of the American Barn owl (Tyto furcata), the North American subspecies, T.f.pratincola, and the Galapagos subspecies, T.f.punctatissima, with respect to aerodynamic parameters and compared our findings with those in other owl and bird species. The body mass of T.f.pratincola is about two times higher than that of T.f.punctatissima. Wing loading between the two subspecies scales allometrically. Wing loading in T.f.pratincola is about 50% higher than in T.f.punctatissima. The scaling of wing length is not statistically different from the prediction for isometric scaling. By contrast, the wing chord in T.f.punctatissima is larger than predicted by isometric scaling, as is the wing area. The scaling of wing loading observed here for T.f.punctatissima differs considerably from the scaling in other owl and bird species as available in the literature. We speculate that the allometric scaling helps T.f.punctatissima to catch smaller prey such, as insects that are found in many pellets of T.f.punctatissima, despite the fact that in both subspecies, small rodents make up most of the diet.

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Raptor wing morphing with flight speed

Cited by 30 publications

References 29 publications

Birds can transition between stable and unstable states via wing morphing

Birds can transition between stable and unstable states via wing morphing

The wing phalanges (Phalanx proximalis digiti majoris) of European Accipitriformes and Falconiformes

A Comparison of Aerodynamic Parameters in Two Subspecies of the American Barn Owl (Tyto furcata)

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