CAnMove

Swifts (Apus apus) are renowned for their extremely aerial life style. From the moment the young swift leaves the nest it sets out on a very long journey. It will spend almost its entire lifetime in the air, day and night. The only time swifts land for a considerable time period is during breeding. They forage on the wing, collect nest materials on the wing, sleep on the wing and perform yearly migrations between Europe and Africa. This extremely aerial lifestyle is naturally associated with a special aerodynamic design, which makes this bird interesting to study since it is potentially yet another important piece of the puzzle of understanding animal flight. In this project, we study the kinematics and the wake patterns of the flying swift in the wind tunnel.