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

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.

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.

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

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!