The energy demands and efficiency of vertebrate flight

Much of our work on the energy demands of flight has concerned the issue of quantifying the efficiency of flight by comparing the aerodynamic mechanical power out put with the directly measured metabolic power input. This BBSRC funded project has involved a collaboration between our own research group in Aberdeen, with the biomechanics research group of Professor Jeremy Rayner formerly at Bristol, but now at the University of Leeds and the flight research group headed by Professor Werner Nachtigall at the University of Saarbrucken in Germany.

The work was performed principally by a post doctoral research assistant (Dr Sally Ward - now the University of St Andrews) and two post graduate research assistants (Diane Jackson - now Dr Jackson at the Rowett research Institute in Aberdeen) and (Udo Moller).

Schematic diagram of the wind tunnel at the University of Saarbrucken in Germany. Werner Nachtigall

The work involved training starlings to fly in the wind tunnel at the University of Saarbrucken (above) while they were wearing respiratory masks. The birds were then flown and their energy expenditures quantified by mask respirometry and also by use of the doubly-labelled water method. Simultaneous to these measurements we also measured the heat output from the animals by measuring their surface temperatures using infra-red thermography and filmed the birds using high speed cine film to generate biomechanical calculations of their mechanical energy output.

	Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) flying unconstrained in a wind tunnel at the University of Saarbrucken, Germany
	Picture of starling flying in same wind tunnel taken by thermal imaging camera. Emitted radiation is translated into surface temperatures using its wavelength distribution to inform of hot and cool spots. Temperature scale is to right of picture. Flying starlings have hot spots in their bills but also under their armpits and their feet.

PUBLICATIONS

SPEAKMAN, J.R. and Ward, S. (1998)
Infrared thermography : principles and applications.
Zoology : Analysis of Complex Systems. 101: 224-232

Ward, S.M., Moller, U., Rayner, J.M.V., Jackson, D.M., Nachtigall, W. and SPEAKMAN,
J.R. (1998).
Power requirement for Starling flight in a wind tunnel.
Biologia e Conservazione della Fauna 102: 335-339

Ward, S., Rayner, J.M.V., Moller, U., Jackson, D.M., Nachtigall, W. and SPEAKMAN, J.R.
(1999)
Heat transfer from starlings Sturnus vulgaris during flight
Journal of Experimental Biology 202: 1589-1602.

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Ward, S., Scantlebury, D.M., Krol, E., Thomson, P.J., Sparling, C. and SPEAKMAN, J.R.
(2000)
Preparation of hydrogen from water by reduction with lithium aluminium hydride for
analysis of d 2H by isotope ratio mass spectrometry.
Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 14: 450-453.

Rayner, J.M.V., Ward, S., Poaloa, V. and SPEAKMAN, J.R. (2000: in press)
Bounding flight in the Starling
American Zoologist

Ward, S., Rayner, J.M.V., Moller, U., Jackson, D.M., Nachtigall, W. and SPEAKMAN, J.R.
(2001: in press)
Efficiency of flight in the starling (Sturnus vulgaris)
Journal of Experimental Biology

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