Flying with the wind: Scale dependency of speed and direction measurements in modelling wind support in avian flight

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dc.contributor.authorSafi, K.en
dc.contributor.authorKranstauber, B.en
dc.contributor.authorWeinzierl, R.en
dc.contributor.authorGriffin, L.en
dc.contributor.authorRees, E. C.en
dc.contributor.authorCabot, Daviden
dc.contributor.authorCruz, S.en
dc.contributor.authorProaño, C.en
dc.contributor.authorTakekawa, J. Y.en
dc.contributor.authorNewman, S. H.en
dc.contributor.authorWaldenström, J.en
dc.contributor.authorBengtsson, D.en
dc.contributor.authorKays, R.en
dc.contributor.authorWikelski, M.en
dc.contributor.authorBohrer, G.en
dc.contributor.funderScottish Natural Heritage, Solway Coast AONB Sustainable Development Fund; United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization; National Science Foundation, NSF; Directorate for Biological Sciences, BIO, (1145952); National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, (11AP61G); Department of Energy and Climate Change, DECC; British Broadcasting Corporation, BBCen
dc.contributor.funderNASAen
dc.contributor.funderNational Science Foundationen
dc.contributor.funderGovernment of Swedenen
dc.contributor.funderHeritage Lottery Awards for Allen
dc.contributor.funderScottish Natural Heritageen
dc.contributor.funderSolway Coast AONB Sustainable Development Funden
dc.contributor.funderBBCen
dc.contributor.funderCOWRIE Ltden
dc.contributor.funderUK Department of Energy and Climate Changeen
dc.contributor.funderUnited Nations Food and Agriculture Organizationen
dc.contributor.funderFood and Agriculture Organization of the United Nationsen
dc.date.accessioned2025-01-15T09:45:44Z
dc.date.available2025-01-15T09:45:44Z
dc.date.issued2013en
dc.description.abstractBackground: Understanding how environmental conditions, especially wind, influence birds' flight speeds is a prerequisite for understanding many important aspects of bird flight, including optimal migration strategies, navigation, and compensation for wind drift. Recent developments in tracking technology and the increased availability of data on large-scale weather patterns have made it possible to use path annotation to link the location of animals to environmental conditions such as wind speed and direction. However, there are various measures available for describing not only wind conditions but also the bird's flight direction and ground speed, and it is unclear which is best for determining the amount of wind support (the length of the wind vector in a bird's flight direction) and the influence of cross-winds (the length of the wind vector perpendicular to a bird's direction) throughout a bird's journey. Results: We compared relationships between cross-wind, wind support and bird movements, using path annotation derived from two different global weather reanalysis datasets and three different measures of direction and speed calculation for 288 individuals of nine bird species. Wind was a strong predictor of bird ground speed, explaining 10-66% of the variance, depending on species. Models using data from different weather sources gave qualitatively similar results; however, determining flight direction and speed from successive locations, even at short (15 min intervals), was inferior to using instantaneous GPS-based measures of speed and direction. Use of successive location data significantly underestimated the birds' ground and airspeed, and also resulted in mistaken associations between cross-winds, wind support, and their interactive effects, in relation to the birds' onward flight. Conclusions: Wind has strong effects on bird flight, and combining GPS technology with path annotation of weather variables allows us to quantify these effects for understanding flight behaviour. The potentially strong influence of scaling effects must be considered and implemented in developing sampling regimes and data analysis. © 2013 Safi et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.en
dc.description.sponsorshipNASA (Biological Response to Climate Change grant #NNX11AP61G); National Science Foundation (grant #IOS-1145952); Government of Sweden (donation OSRO/GLO/GO1/SWE)en
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden
dc.description.versionPublished Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.articleid4en
dc.identifier.citationSafi, K., Kranstauber, B., Weinzierl, R., Griffin, L., Rees, E.C., Cabot, D., Cruz, S., Proaño, C., Takekawa, J.Y., Newman, S.H. and Waldenström, J. (2013) 'Flying with the wind: scale dependency of speed and direction measurements in modelling wind support in avian flight', Movement Ecology, 1, pp.1-13. https://doi.org/10.1186/2051-3933-1-4en
dc.identifier.doi10.1186/2051-3933-1-4en
dc.identifier.issued1
dc.identifier.journaltitleMovement Ecologyen
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/16819
dc.identifier.volume1
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherBioMed Central Ltd.en
dc.rights © 2013, Safi et al. Licensee: BioMed Central Ltd. This work is made available under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)en
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subjectAvesen
dc.subjectDoppler-shiften
dc.subjectECMWFen
dc.subjectFlight directionen
dc.subjectFlight speeden
dc.subjectGPSen
dc.subjectMeasurement erroren
dc.subjectNOAAen
dc.subjectScalingen
dc.subject~Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences - Journal Articles~en
dc.titleFlying with the wind: Scale dependency of speed and direction measurements in modelling wind support in avian flighten
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)en
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