Natural History Wanderings

“Flap Running” presents new ideas about the evolution of flight in birds.  Researchers led by Brandon Jackson from the University of Montana have published a study in the Journal of Experimental Biology on how bird flight my have evolved.  They studied birds who can fly yet often flap their wings and run (flap-run) when going uphill.  They learned that this uses about 10 percent of the energy that flight muscles would use to fly.  They also see that young birds who do this behavior as part of learning to fly.  The researchers are theorizing that “flap-running’ may have been an evolutionary step in winged animals developing flying behavior.  To learn more go to Journal of Experimental Biology article:  Birds ‘Flap-Run’ to Save Energy of the BBC article:   BBC Nature – Flap-running in birds is key to flight evolution.