Following Tracks In The Sky
Summary
The flight patterns of a flock of black vultures are revealed by a novel digital video technique.
View Image
The flight patterns of a flock of black vultures are revealed by a novel digital video technique.
View ImageThe behavior of groups of animals, such as flocks of birds or schools of fish, often reveals intriguing patterns. For example, the flight behavior of an individual bird in a flock depends on its position relative to other birds and the environment. Examination of a composite image of the flight paths of a small flock of black vultures flying and soaring shows that birds follow similarly curved flight paths. The position of a thermal updraft can be seen as a series of tight circles traced by more than one bird. Using this imaging technique to study a larger flock could yield interesting information about the dynamics of animal behavior.
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Technical Details:
A high-resolution digital video camera was used to capture footage of black vultures in flight. Every frame of the footage was then composited together to develop a continuous flight path of individual birds. The image is a single frame from the resulting video sequence.
Credit:
Dennis Hlynsky, Film, Animation and Video Dept., Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
Links:
http://www.risd.edu/academics/fav/faculty/Dennis-Hlynsky/
http://www.audubon.org/magazine/march-april-2009/explaining-bird-flocks
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