Bird wings

[Cait]

Hey, I am doing a project on flight and I have chose budgies to be my topic. Anybody no anything about there flight patterns, feather structure, wing shape, how they steer, exc. Or anybody know of any sites with info on it? Thanks


Cait

[VeraT]

hi,my 2 Spidey and Sweetypie love to fly in kind of intricate circles and figure 8's. they also like to circle my head and kind of buzzing me. Of course they use thier tail to steer. They are now starting to fly the corners of the room, literally from corner to corner along the walls non stop. what else do you want to know? They are birds-they were born to fly. I understand that they are constant migrators-flying from place to place(I think- Monica is the one who is like our budgie expert and would know). You could probobly run a search if you are looking for info on wilod budgies.

[Monica]

Can't say I can find much about it... (so to speak - lots of repeats)
Flight Laboratory - The University of Montana-Missoula
Blackwell Synergy - J Avian Biology, Volume 34 Issue 2 Page 177-184, June 2003 (Article Abstract)
Ornithology Lecture Notes - Flight II

Morphology, Velocity, and Intermittent Flight in Birds -- Tobalske 41 (2): 177 -- American Zoologist
or
Aerodynamics and Energetics of Intermittent Flight in Birds -- Rayner et al. 41 (2): 188 -- American Zoologist

This one is good
http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/187/1/1.pdf



The Significance of Feather

[Cait]

Wow, thanks, i'll check those out. It has already helped alot!!!

[Cait]

okay, not doing so good, actually, most of them ive found helpful, but i am only 13, dont get some of these big words :)

[homebird]

I have observed that when Budgies slow down & hover they bend their tail forwards, spread the secondary tail feathers out like a fan & raise their wings above their heads.

When they have a larger area to fly in they kind of swoop along like a Swallow - half gliding with turns of wing beating.

What seems to be amazing that they can fly thru the smallest areas - when you think it couldn't be possible. Rio got out yesterday by shooting thru the cage door with my arm inside the cage. The other day both flew around me as i was entering the room - there wasn't a lot of space & everyone was in motion - it didn't seem to phase them at all.

Good luck on the assignment.

[homebird]

I did a search - think'g of you being 13 & remembering what reading large articles was like.....

Aerodynamics of Animals - Birds - Intermediate

sample ....
Feathers

The first thing that we notice about a bird is its feathers. Feathers are designed in such perfection. They are light but very strong, and they are flexible but very tough. Feathers do not grow all over the bird. The entire body of the bird appears to be covered with feathers. But this is not true. Feathers grow in certain areas called feather tracks. In between the feather tracks are down feathers. This keeps down the body weight.
feather_diagram
feather

Feathers are made of a tough and flexible material called "keratin". Feathers look solid, but they are not. The spine down the middle, called the shaft, is hollow. The vanes are on the two halves of the feather. They are made of thousands of branches called barbs. Because there are many spaces between these barbs, a feather has as much air as matter.

How does a feather grow? It grows from a bump in the skin. Growth begins with the tip of the feather. When a bird hatches, the tip separates and looks like fuzz on the baby bird. This is soft down. This is not a feather but a covering.

The tip forms a tough, protective sheath. As the tip continues to grow, the downy fuzz is pushed ahead of it. Each feather is rolled inside the sheath. It is called a pin feather at this stage. A bird's survival depends upon the condition of its feathers. Birds take a lot of time caring for their feathers. This is called preening. They use their feet and beaks to arrange their feathers. They nibble each feather from the base of the tip. Birds also bathe alot.

Birds have between 1,000 and 25,000 feathers. Feathers can be divided into 6 categories:

1. Contour feathers
2. Semiplume feathers
3. Down feathers
4. Filoplume feathers
5. Bristle feathers
6. Powder-down feathers

Not all birds have all the types of feathers. It depends on what type of bird it is. But all birds have feathers on their wings. The bird's wing is the basic structure for flight. It is the shape of the wing that allows a bird to fly. The shape of the wing is made by the feathers.

The tail of the bird plays a big role during flight. The tail acts as the rudder, balancing and steering the bird. The tail also helps the bird in stopping. The tail is turned downward and acts like a brake.

Feathers are truly amazing. They protect the bird's skin and insulate him. Feathers can be fluffed up in the winter or squeezed down in the summer. Feathers are also used to line nests.

The color of the feathers is important in mating. Birds can see color. Other mammals cannot. The amount of color found in birds is dependent upon their life style. Feathers truly make birds unique in the animal kingdom. The secrets found in a bird's feather is awesome.

The Ability to Fly - article for people interesting in birdwatching and avian flight and how birds fly

Sample from article

.....Four forces (thrust and drag, lift and weight) work together to make both airplanes and birds fly. If all are equal, then the bird or plane will fly in a level path.

The pull of gravity can be thought of as the thrust. Think of a person on a bicycle going faster and faster downhill as an example.

Lift is generated when the forward motion through the skies overcomes its weight. Birds create lift by moving forward. Think of the times you've seen a tern or gull running into the wind to begin flight. In very simplified terms, the upper air on top of the wing sucks the bird upwards while the increased pressure underneath also pushes it upwards. To prove this to yourself, take a piece of paper and hold two corners, allowing the paper to hang down. Blow hard across the top edge and the paper will rise.

Drag is the force that tends to push something along with the air flow. Think of putting your hand out of a moving automobile window as an example. Drag in a flying bird is reduced by the shape of the wings and body as well as the angle of the wing. To slow down, a bird will use drag by spreading its tail and lowering its feet........

Bird flight - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

sample...
photos too....

The fundamentals of bird flight are similar to those of aircraft. Lift force is produced by the action of air flow on the wing, which is an airfoil. The lift force occurs because the air has a lower pressure just above the wing and higher pressure below.

When gliding, both birds and gliders obtain both a vertical and a forward force from their wings. This is possible because the lift force is generated at right angles to the air flow, which in level flight comes from slightly below the wing. The lift force therefore has a forward component. (Weight always acts vertically downwards and so cannot provide a forward force. Without a forward component, a gliding bird would merely descend vertically, exactly as a parachute does).

When a bird flaps, as opposed to gliding, its wings continue to develop lift as before, but they also create an additional forward and upward force, thrust, to counteract its weight and drag. Flapping involves two stages: the down-stroke, which provides the majority of the thrust, and the up-stroke, which can also (depending on the bird's wings) provide some upward force. At each up-stroke the wing is slightly folded inwards to reduce upward resistance. Birds change the angle of attack between the up-stroke and the down-stroke of their wings. During the down-stroke the angle of attack is increased, and is decreased during the up-stroke.

There are three major forces that impede a bird's aerial flight: frictional drag (caused by the friction of air and body surfaces), form drag (due to frontal area of the bird, also known as pressure drag), and lift-induced drag (caused by the wingtip vortices).

just do a search on flight birds - see what else comes of it

[Cait]

haha, thanks, this is alot better. Most of monicas sights were okay, but, i just needed some more that wernt as complex! thanks for the help. When i was searching i happened to find a sight about gender and genetics! jackpot!!!! from what i read, i have confirmed sunny is male and ming female! yaaaaaay! babies!!! lol :)