Carrying large fuel loads during sustained bird flight is cheaper than expected

Anders Kvist (), Åke Lindström, Martin Green, Theunis Piersma and G. Henk Visser
Additional contact information
Anders Kvist: Lund University, Ecology Building
Åke Lindström: Lund University, Ecology Building
Martin Green: Lund University, Ecology Building
Theunis Piersma: Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), PO Box 59
G. Henk Visser: Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Studies, University of Groningen, PO Box 14

Nature, 2001, vol. 413, issue 6857, 730-732

Abstract: Abstract Birds on migration alternate between consuming fuel stores during flights and accumulating fuel stores during stopovers. The optimal timing and length of flights and stopovers for successful migration depend heavily on the extra metabolic power input (fuel use) required to carry the fuel stores during flight1,2. The effect of large fuel loads on metabolic power input has never been empirically determined. We measured the total metabolic power input of a long-distance migrant, the red knot (Calidris canutus), flying for 6 to 10 h in a wind tunnel, using the doubly labelled water technique3. Here we show that total metabolic power input increased with fuel load, but proportionally less than the predicted mechanical power output from the flight muscles. The most likely explanation is that the efficiency with which metabolic power input is converted into mechanical output by the flight muscles increases with fuel load. This will influence current models of bird flight and bird migration. It may also help to explain why some shorebirds, despite the high metabolic power input required to fly, routinely make nonstop flights of 4,000 km longer4.

Date: 2001
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DOI: 10.1038/35099556

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