#  Pigeon Turning 

 



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   ![ivo_ros.png](/sites/g/files/omnuum6301/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/biewener/files/ivo_ros_2.png?itok=4kO9UKvT) 

 

Work with Ivo Ros (*PNAS* 2011) & collaborators at Harvey Mudd College recently shows that during slow flight pigeons turn much like a helicopter, with the net aerodynamic force having a fixed orientation with respect to the bird's body (blue vector cone +8 deg during downstroke; red vector cone during upstroke). Thus, pigeons mainly reorient Faero by banking (rolling) into the turn. Surprisingly, pigeons generate significant upstroke lift ( ~27% of downstroke lift) through their wingtip reversal upstroke, originally noted by RJH Brown (1963). These results were obtained by combining 3D kinematics obtained from 5 high-speed video cameras with a detailed mass-distribution model of the pigeons to track movements of the pigeon's center of mass over time.

Sort   ![ivo_ros_downstroke_compilation.png](/sites/g/files/omnuum6301/files/styles/hwp_1_1__960x960_scale/public/biewener/files/ivo_ros_downstroke_compilation.png?itok=jMI5g6Bf) 

 



   ![pigeonliftpnas2011.png](/sites/g/files/omnuum6301/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/biewener/files/pigeonliftpnas2011.png?itok=EQ4fMQKF) 

 







   ![Pigeon mass distribution model](/sites/g/files/omnuum6301/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/biewener/files/pigeonmassdistmodel.png?itok=u5xX6scB)