After a few running steps, the birds typically fall forward awkwardly and slide headfirst on their chest. High speeds work for water landings but are usually too much for controlled landings on islands. They will not slow the birds down as much as broader wings, so albatross landing speeds are often fast. Their wings are highly efficient, long and narrow. Landing is difficult for albatrosses because their lifestyle requires them to spend so much time in the air. It simply lowers its trajectory, hitting the water fast from a low angle. It flies fast with rapid wingbeats, and its landings are about as graceful as a dropped rock. Fortunately, its wings favor its lifestyle, not flight efficiency. If it had the heron’s large wings, its underwater swimming would be abysmal and it would starve. The Common Loon, on the other hand, dives and swims underwater, where it feeds largely on fish. Big wings are just the ticket, since they generate enough lift for herons to drop slowly.

It has to make soft, vertical landings as well as near-vertical takeoffs. The Great Blue feeds in shallow water that is often marshy or wooded.

The heron has large, broad wings, while the loon has small wings that appear almost too small for the job. They have similar body sizes and weights, but their wings are dramatically different. For most birds, these factors are a compromise between what is ideal for their lifestyle (that is, how they get food) and efficient flight.Ĭonsider the Great Blue Heron and Common Loon. Landing styles depend largely on a combination of body mass and wing size and shape. Wandering Albatross off Kaikoura, New Zealand, February 2013, by Carol Eifert. Birds cushion themselves from such quick stops by collapsing their extended legs, which function like magic springs. As with the avian alula, air rushes under and over the slat and continues smoothly over the top of the wing, maintaining lift.īirds that land on trees, the ground, or other hard surfaces have to reduce their speed to zero abruptly. The slat is moved forward and downward, creating an opening. The narrow leading edge of the wing, the slat, is moveable and analogous to the avian alula. When airliners land or take off, the wings are at a steep angle of attack and stalling is of great concern. If the speed before touchdown is too fast, a bird has a way to brake quickly: It tilts back more, so its wings are nearly vertical, and beats them forward strongly, in a horizontal plane. Air rushes both under and over the alula and then combines to flow smoothly over the wings, maintaining lift even when the wings are at a stalling angle. To activate the alula, a bird elevates it slightly, creating space between the quills and wing. Located on the leading edge of the wing just beyond the wrist, the alula consists of a single bone, to which three feathers known as alular quills are attached in an overlapping row. If the wings are at a stalling angle, but lift is still needed, the bird will make use of a clever anti-stall mechanism called the alula. This slows the speed and, if the angle is great enough, disrupts the flow of air over the wings, creating turbulent eddies that cancel lift and cause stalling. While there are exceptions, the general pattern is that, just prior to touchdown, the bird tilts backward, raising the front of its wings, thereby increasing the so-called angle of attack. When a bird decides to land, it must reduce speed, cancel lift, and ultimately come to a stop. A bird requires air to flow smoothly over the top of its wings to generate lift. To consider landing, let’s start with flight.

Bird wing alula