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Why do birds sometimes fly in the shape of "people"?
Some researchers observed 65,438+04 ibis born in Vienna Zoo as part of a conservation plan to reintroduce this critically endangered bird into Europe's natural distribution areas. The author of this study is also the adoptive parents of ibis, who took ibis to Salzburg, Austria for flight training. Humans fly by paraglider, so do birds. "With the progress of flight training, their herringbone arrangement is obviously getting better and better. Steve nJ. Portugal, one of the authors of the paper and a postdoctoral fellow at the Royal Veterinary University, said.

? Finally, under the guidance of "adoptive parents", these birds embarked on the migration road of 1000 km, flying from Salzburg to alberto. These birds carry customized data recorders that allow researchers to track the condition, speed and direction of their wings. It weighs less than 30 grams, but it includes accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, memory card, battery, microcontroller and GPS ("much better than the GPS on your mobile phone," Usherwood said). GPS can be accurate to 30cm, and can be refreshed five times per second-this is the accuracy of detecting the position of the other party.

? The researchers analyzed the position of birds during the seven-minute flight and compared these observations with the theoretical predictions of aerodynamic models. Kenny, a professor of engineering and a professor of evolutionary ecology at Brown University? Kenny Brewer and his colleague David? David Willis and others calculated these expectations. When the wing pushes the air downward to generate lift, other air will rise to both sides of the wing to form vortex. The wings of aircraft will also produce similar eddies, sometimes leaving obvious marks. But the turbulence of birds flying is much more complicated than that of airplanes. Dr. Brewer said, "The intensity of these wingtip vortices varies with the flapping stage. In order to make full use of the captain's airflow, you need to fly in the most suitable position and at the most suitable time. "

The analysis of 24,000 swings shows that Aedes albopictus can adjust its position and swing phase to obtain the maximum lift, and when it changes its position in the array, it will readjust. New research does not show how much energy can be saved by these migrations, but even a small amount of savings in long-distance migration may be significant.