Feathers by day, membranes by night - Aerodynamic performance in bird and bat flight
Popular Abstract in English Animal flight has always intrigued people, and different aspects of animal flight have therefore widely been studied by biologists, physicists and engineers. At least to me, the aspect concerning the aerodynamics of animal flight in particular is very interesting because of the complex temporal varying wake dynamics as a result of continually wing morphing in flapping fThe efficiency and performance of a flying animal is directly related to the aerodynamics around its body and flapping wings. Here, I have developed methods for quantifying the wake dynamics around a flying animal. The results are used to estimate the aerodynamic performance of flapping flight. Using these methods, I have studied flight of the Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca), the Pallas’ Long