Testing Morphology-Dominance-Performance Framework in Bird Flight

Bird body mass has been decreasing globally over the past 60 years due to the effects of climate change. However, the impact of such chronic body mass decline on flight performance has not been explored. Body mass is a plastic trait that changes diurnally, seasonally, and throughout the life stages of an individual bird. Body mass also has a direct impact on power requirements for flight. A model that links flight morphology to performance while controlling for temporal mass fluctuations will be useful in reliably predicting the performance shifts as morphology reshapes in a changing environment.

The proposed project utilizes state-of-art motion-tracking cameras and captive Zebra Finches (Taeniopygia castanotis) at the Oxford Flight Group and Great Tit (Parus major) population in Wytham Woods monitored by Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology. Before testing the wildlife population, I intend to produce three-dimensional performance space graphs on how known morphology may affect theoretical flight performance. This will involve identifying measurable performance objectives in selection per each flight mode such as take-off, foraging, and courtship display flight. The theoretical predictions will be compared with the real-life flight performance of Zebra Finches and Great Tit on how temporal body mass fluctuations may affect flight. I will track changing flight performance throughout the development of captive Zebra Finches. I will also measure performance objectives on the wild Great Tit population as their body mass depresses as an effect of introducing a sparrowhawk model as the predator pressure.

Beyond direct scaling between morphology and performance, personality and social rank often interact with behaviour and therefore flight. For example, in Great Tit, fast explorer males occupy more central and dominant social positions than slower equivalents with no apparent benefits in breeding success. Dominant males are also often heavier and faster than subordinate females. I will use social network analysis and flight chamber to test how personality correlates with performance and whether body mass change by controlling food access among Great Tit and Marsh Tit populations may influence interspecific dominance. Overall, I aim to disentangle the adaptative interplay between morphology, social factors, and performance.