A group of researchers was able to confirm that if a bird has wings whose feathers closer to the body are painted white and black at the tips, then it receives a more significant return from a similar effort during flight.
People have been analyzing how birds and other creatures that are able to stay in the air for a long time fly. In a recent work, scientists tried to establish whether the coloring of the bird's wing exerts a return on effort during flight.
To determine this, the authors of the studies created a number of effigies, which had a different structure of color of the feathers, after which they performed experiments on them in the laboratory. Their essence was that these stuffed animals were placed inside the wind tunnel and heated by infrared radiation and then recorded the consequences.
First of all, scientists sought to study birds with the ability to soar, in particular osprey, gannetwhale and black gulls.
Researchers conducted experiments on specimens of each of these species with different flight parameters to determine if there is a correlation between the effectiveness of flight effort and the color of the wings. It is worth noting that birds that can soar sometimes rise to a greater height without moving their wings at all, but only under the influence of air flows from one element of their wing to another.
It was possible to determine that the temperature of black feathers increases faster and ultimately reaches a higher rate. And the most significant return on the same effort during the flight was given to those species in which the feathers near the body are lighter and closer to the tips are darker. If the color of the wing was just such, then the gap in the temperatures of its innermost and most outer part could reach nine degrees Celsius. This is enough to create an air flow inside the wing due to convection. In this way, the bird may gain some excess lift.
Next, scientists intend to analyze the various options for coloring feathers and establish how they affect the aerodynamic properties of living organisms. The results of this study will find their practical application in the design of aircraft with greater flight efficiency and, accordingly, more profitable in operation.
