I thought we had pretty much thought something like that for decades ....

I knew that a long time ago. The lead bird "breaks" the air making it progressively easier for the birds down the flanks of the "V". After a while, the lead bird will move to the back of the "V" as a way of conserving energy, thereby increasing their flying range. This was proven in WWII when bomber pilots noticed the same effect on their planes.

sid is so smart!

Wait a moment. Let's not be so fast to rush to judgment. The article states:



The fact that birds fly in the optimal position for least wind resistance doesn't prove that that's why they fly in that formation.

It is possible they might be flying in that formation for another or other reasons, and the wind resistance aspect is simply an incidental, beneficial aspect.

For example, they may be flying in that formation because of their pecking order, with the most dominant bird leading the way, and the least dominant following behind. The lead bird might occasionally move the rear to rest, but that still doesn't prove that they aren't flying in that formation due to their pecking order or for some other reason.

Maybe airlines should take note and increase their fuel efficiency! Of course that would require complicated take-offs and landings, lol.

If that's the case, the reason still isn't proven and the heading is misleading. Maybe they do it because "V" is the only letter of the alphabet they know. They are bird brains after all.

If there is one thing we should have learned in thousands of years of history, it's that we can't rush to assume things. It's not good science.

Consider:

* The birds fly in a "V" formation, and it has been observed that there is less wind resistance. Does that PROVE that they fly in that formation BECAUSE there is less wind resistance? Might the wind resistance be incidental to the reason they fly in that formation?

* The sun rises every morning, and it has been observed that the rooster crows every morning. Does that PROVE that the sun rises BECAUSE the rooster crows? Might the sun rising be incidental to the rooster's crowing?

* The sun rises every morning, and it has been observed that the rooster crows every morning. Does that PROVE that the sun rises BECAUSE the rooster crows? Might the sun rising be incidental to the rooster's crowing?

Wha' choo sayin', Willis??? Everybody knows the sun doesn't come up. The ground goes down.

When there's a clear beneficial gain to be had and the same behaviour can be seen in many different species then its a very good reason to conclude that there's a a causal link. Correlation doesn't mean correlation but correlation combined with effectiveness often does.

Even the sun/rooster thing doesn't support the notion that we shouldn't assume causality in such cases, because there is such a connection, its just the other way around. The sun doesn't rise because the rooster crows, but its not unreasonable to say the rooster crows because the sun is rising.

Besides, if science depended on certainty and wasn't based on a range of assumptions it wouldn't exist at all. That's what the whole idea of a "hypothesis" is about.

What the study does seem to add is that its not just a matter of breaking the wind its also about gaining extra lift. It seems to be a bit similar to a dolphin riding the bow wave of a boat.

F1 drafting and aerodynamics.

If any of the old farts I know break wind........nobody will follow them.

The crux with many "scientific journals" aimed at the general public is that many times they don't relay what the study was about. In this case it wasn't about the well known V formation at all.

From the study directly:

The well-held belief is that such aggregations give an energetic benefit for those birds that are flying behind and to one side of another bird through using the regions of upwash generated by the wings of the preceding bird4, 7, 9, 10, 11, although a definitive account of the aerodynamic implications of these formations has remained elusive.

Here we show that individuals of northern bald ibises (Geronticus eremita) flying in a V flock position themselves in aerodynamically optimum positions, in that they agree with theoretical aerodynamic predictions. Furthermore, we demonstrate that birds show wingtip path coherence when flying in V positions, flapping spatially in phase and thus enabling upwash capture to be maximized throughout the entire flap cycle. In contrast, when birds fly immediately behind another bird—in a streamwise position—there is no wingtip path coherence; the wing-beats are in spatial anti-phase. This could potentially reduce the adverse effects of downwash for the following bird. These aerodynamic accomplishments were previously not thought possible for birds because of the complex flight dynamics and sensory feedback that would be required to perform such a feat12, 14. We conclude that the intricate mechanisms involved in V formation flight indicate awareness of the spatial wake structures of nearby flock-mates, and remarkable ability either to sense or predict it. We suggest that birds in V formation have phasing strategies to cope with the dynamic wakes produced by flapping wings.