Coping with compliance during take-off and landing in the diamond dove (Geopelia cuneata).

ABSTRACT: The natural world is filled with substrates of varying properties that challenge locomotor abilities. Birds appear to transition smoothly from aerial to terrestrial environments during take-offs and landings using substrates that are incredibly variable. It may be challenging to control movement on and off compliant (flexible) substrates such as twigs, yet birds routinely accomplish such tasks. Previous research suggests that birds do not use their legs to harness elastic recoil from perches. Given avian mastery of take-off and landing, we hypothesized that birds instead modulate wing, body and tail movements to effectively use compliant perches. We measured take-off and landing performance of diamond doves (Geopelia cuneata (N = 5) in the laboratory and perch selection in this species in

SUBMITTER: Crandell KE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6059395 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature