Soaring over open waters: horizontal winds provide lift to soaring migrants in weak thermal conditions
J Škrábal, Š Krejčí, R Raab, E Sebastián-González, I Literák · 2023
Read Soaring over open waters: horizontal winds provide lift to soaring migrants in weak thermal conditions by J Škrábal, Š Krejčí, R Raab, E Sebastián-González, I Literák (2023) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-10710700.txt.
Description
Škrábal and co-authors track migrating red kites in this 2023 study. Soaring birds ride warm rising air to gain height without flapping. Open water offers few such updrafts, so sea crossings are hard. The team fitted GPS tags to nineteen red kites from central Europe. The birds crossed the Adriatic Sea on their autumn migration.
The team matched each track with weather data on wind, cloud, and air warmth. Tailwinds shaped when the birds chose to cross. Side winds gave lift when rising air was weak, so the birds could still soar. The findings show how wind lets large birds cross wide water at low energy cost.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | J Škrábal, Š Krejčí, R Raab, E Sebastián-González, I Literák |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2023 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 41 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |