Using optimality perspectives is now regarded as an essential way of analysing and
understanding adaptations and behavioural strategies in bird migration. Optimization …

The aerobatic maneuvers of swifts could be very useful for micro aerial vehicle missions.
Rapid arrests and turns would allow flight in cluttered and unstructured spaces. However …

The performance capabilities of flying animals reflect the interplay of biomechanical and
physiological constraints and evolutionary innovation. Of the two extant groups of …

Birds and bats frequently reconfigure their wing planform through a combination of flapping
and local sweep morphing, suggesting a possible approach for improving the performance …

During the day, flying animals exploit the environmental energy landscape by seeking out
thermal or orographic uplift, or extracting energy from wind gradients. 1–6 However, most of …

The use of artificial light at night (ALAN) is a rapidly expanding anthropogenic effect that
transforms nightscapes throughout the world, causing light pollution that affects ecosystems …

Studying individual flight behaviour throughout the year is indispensable to understand the
ecology of a bird species. Recent development in technology allows now to track flight …

Common swifts are specialist flyers spending most of their life aloft, including night-time
periods when this species roosts on the wing. Nocturnal roosting is preceded by a vertical …

There are at least eight ways that wings potentially produce sound. Five mechanisms are
aerodynamic sounds, created by airflow, and three are structural sound created by …

Optimal foraging theory posits that foragers adjust their movements based on prey
abundance to optimize food intake. While extensively studied in terrestrial and marine …