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Aerodynamics

The cost of flight in flocks

Nature volume 474, pages 458–459 (2011)Cite this article

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There are well-known aerodynamic and energetic benefits to flying in an orderly formation. By contrast, it seems that the flocking flight seen in pigeons is metabolically expensive. So why do they do it? See Letter p.494

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Figure 1: Flight formations and clusters.

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  1. Geoffrey Spedding is in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089-1191, USA.,

    Geoffrey Spedding

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  1. Geoffrey Spedding
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Correspondence to Geoffrey Spedding.

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Spedding, G. The cost of flight in flocks. Nature 474, 458–459 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/474458a

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