Off Topic - Intricacy of a bird flight maneuver question - High speedvideo

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What turned this bird around?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGKZ5E3nCD8

3 seconds "realtime" slowed via high speed video

Was it the tail feathers that the bird used to make a 180 in mid
flight?

Three segments in the video, each segment progressively focusing in on
the 180 turn.

[a[_3_]]

It looks to me like differential wing strokes caused the turn


On Jul 16, 1:20*pm, " > wrote:
> What turned this bird around?
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGKZ5E3nCD8
>
> 3 seconds "realtime" slowed via high speed video
>
> Was it the tail feathers that the bird used to make a 180 in mid
> flight?
>
> Three segments in the video, each segment progressively focusing in on
> the 180 turn.

[Dudley Henriques[_2_]]

On Jul 16, 1:20*pm, " > wrote:
> What turned this bird around?
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGKZ5E3nCD8
>
> 3 seconds "realtime" slowed via high speed video
>
> Was it the tail feathers that the bird used to make a 180 in mid
> flight?
>
> Three segments in the video, each segment progressively focusing in on
> the 180 turn.

Not that I'm the Audubon expert around here by a long shot :-)) but I
had occasion to study quite closely the film shot by Art Scholl of
seagulls for the film Johnathon Livingston Seagull.
Art shot a ton of high speed film as his helper was hand feeding gulls
off the transom of a boat to get shots to be used in the film. The
film was a beautiful study of bird aerodynamics.
Watching the gulls hover and turn almost in place I believe 2a is
right. The birds use their entire bodies to face into these turns sort
of like an ice skater twisting into a jump, then use differential
strength with their wings with a stronger stroke on the outside wing
to make the turn. The tail seems to help with general balance and
causing a lean back toward the desired turn direction that helps the
outside wing.
They are indeed beautiful to watch, and I have to admit that without
high speed film like that shot by Art, I never would have had an
inkling of the exact dynamics involved it's so complicated.
Dudley Henriques

[Franklin[_7_]]

On Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:17:34 -0700 (PDT), Dudley Henriques wrote:

> Not that I'm the Audubon expert around here by a long shot :-))

I am, ask away, DooRight, hey!