Wind gradient exploitation during foraging flights by black skimmers (Rynchops niger).

ABSTRACT: Birds commonly exploit environmental features such as columns of rising air and vertical windspeed gradients to lower the cost of flight. These environmental subsidies may be especially important for birds that forage via continuous flight, as seen in black skimmers. These birds forage through a unique behavior, called skimming, where they fly above the water surface with their mandible lowered into the water, catching fish on contact. Thus, their foraging flight incurs costs of moving through both air and water. Prior studies of black skimmer flight behavior have focused on reductions in flight cost due to ground effect, but ignored potential beneficial interactions with the surrounding air. We hypothesized a halfpipe skimming strategy for skimmers to reduce the foraging cost by taking ad

SUBMITTER: Mendez LX 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11418178 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature