Soaring birds use their lungs to modify mechanics of flight
Dr. Emma Schachner is shown with a red-tailed hawk at UF's College of Veterinary Medicine. (Betsy Brzezinski, UF Health)
Soaring birds — like osprey, eagles, falcons, even vultures — can stay aloft in the air seemingly forever, rarely flapping their wings. They glide along rising air currents in a way that has fascinated humans and scientists for centuries.
Now, an international team of researchers led by University of Florida evolutionary biologist Emma Schachner, Ph.D., has reported for the first time that soaring birds use their lungs to enhance their flying in a way that has evolved over time. The team’s study was published June 12 in Nature.
In short: Unlike the lungs of mammals, bird lungs do more than just breathe. An air-filled sac within the birds’ lungs is believed to increase the force the birds use to power flight muscles while soaring.
“It has long been known that breathing is functionally linked to locomotion, and it has been demonstrated that flapping enhances ventilation,” said Schachner, an assistant professor at UF’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “But our findings demonstrate that the opposite is also true in some species. We have shown that a component of the respiratory system is influencing and modifying the performance of the flight apparatus in soaring birds, who are using their lungs to modify the biomechanics of their flight muscles.”