The role of learning and experience in the acquisition of flight behaviours in birds

Flight is the most complex means of locomotion found in animals as it requires considerable agility and energy. Birds are especially adapted for flight, with some species having developed specialised flight modes such as hovering and soaring. Due to the complexity of flight behaviours and, until recently, the lack of tools and technology able to capture and process flight tracking data, few studies have investigated their ontogeny. Studies on bird migration and navigation have provided some evidence that complex flight behaviours are acquired throughout development; however, due to recent advances in high-resolution tracking and motion capture technology, it is now possible to study flight behaviours at a
fine scale. To determine the role of experience in the acquisition of flight abilities, I propose to investigate the ontogeny of three flight behaviours: landing on perches in passerines, compensating for wind drift in homing pigeons, and dynamic soaring in seabirds.
I will combine experiments in a motion capture recording studio and in the field in order to study the guidance mechanisms of birds during flight and identify any emergence or shifts in strategy as they acquire a specific flight ability. This project will have implications for the fields of animal behaviour, learning, and potentially, artificial intelligence.

The proposed project addresses the following BBSRC priority areas:
- Data driven biology
- Systems approaches to bioscience
- Technology development for the biosciences