In the wake of a bird - Quantifying aerodynamic performance of avian flight
Popular Abstract in English Insects, birds, bats and pterosaurs have all evolved the ability to fly, even though it requires a lot of energy. The advantage is obvious: one can move about vertically, to go where others cannot, find and access distant food sources or escape your predators. But flying is also a very fast mode of transportation, and when you count the amount of energy required to get Flight is an expensive form of locomotion, but also offers the ability to travel great distances at relatively low cost. Birds have developed various adaptations for optimizing flight performance. The main aim of this thesis is to identify how morphological variables in birds affect aerodynamic drag and flight performance. To this end I studied the aerodynamic performance of a jackdaw (Corvus mone