Chases, clusters, and surfin’ birds: Effects of group flight on locomotor biomechanics and energetics

Context matters in locomotion biomechanics, through direct effects such as differences in terrain or the environment altering the physics of locomotion, and indirectly when different contexts alter the underlying trade-offs between different approaches to movement. Group or collective movement represents one such context and here I use field recordings and laboratory experiments to explore how group interactions affect fundamental aspects of locomotor biomechanics and energetics in bird flight. Specific examples include tandem flights in Cliff Swallows, the cluster flocks of shorebird species across a range of body sizes, and an experimental wind tunnel examination of the energetics of European Starlings flying solo and in small groups. These specific examples demonstrate the importance of group movement context in bird flight while also suggesting similar context-driven changes in other organisms, in other environments, and during other behaviors.

Speaker: Ty Hedrick, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill