J-Formation and Inverted J-Formation

Why Do Birds Fly In a V Format? - Bird Flight, Mechanism, V-formation

Have you ever looked up at the sky and noticed a ‘V’ floating above your head? Well, not a flying alphabet but a flock of birds in that formation. Most people say that they are simply following their leader. But a flock of birds flying in a V shape is a little complicated and a lot more interesting than what people usually think.

Table of Contents

Bird Flight
Mechanics of Bird Flight
Why Do Birds Fly In a V Format?
Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs

What Is Bird Flight?

Bird flight is defined as the mode of locomotion used by birds while taking off and flying. This is one of the most complex forms of locomotion in the animal kingdom. Flight helps birds in breeding, feeding and avoiding predators and during migration.

What Is The Mechanics Of Bird Flight?

Bird flight mechanism is similar to the mechanism of aircraft. In both cases, aerodynamic forces are used based on lift and drag. Lift is defined as the force that is produced by the action of airflow in the wing and drag is defined as the force which is opposite to the direction of motion.

Why Do Birds Fly In a V Format? – Explained

You have probably seen that birds tend to fly in a V-Formation while migrating or making trips to find food. There is usually one bird at the front that leads the way and the other birds in the flock line up at the back in right or left making a V shape in the sky. Birds usually fly in a V-Formation, J-Formation, Inverted V-Formation, or Inverted J-Formation. These linear formations of birds are called Skein Formation.

Skein Formation

The V-Formation is not only used by birds but also by military personnel during the time of war. The V-Formation has been used in wars from Spartans in the Middle Ages to modern-day fighter jets and sea warfare. Birds, planes, and people all have similar reasons to follow this formation. Lining up in a V-formation gives each a clear view ahead of them. But a flock of birds flying in a V shape has a more impressive reason for this flight formation.

Scientists discovered that birds at the back of the V have slower heart rates and flap their wings less often. This definitely shows that birds benefit more from this flight formation. But the question now is, how do birds actually benefit from this?

V Formation

According to researchers, the birds mostly fly around a metre behind and a metre off to the side up front. Now when the bird in front flaps its wings a vortex of air directly behind is pushed downwards which is called downwash.

Downwash

This creates a pressure difference. Due to this, the air below the wings is of higher pressure than the air above the wings. And as usual, the air moves from the region of higher pressure to the region of lower pressure in the upward direction which is called upwash.

Upwash

Now the bird situated in another bird’s upwash has to spend a lot less energy to fly since they are already being pushed upwards by the upwash of the bird in front of it.

The V-Formation of birds situates each member back and to the side directly in its neighbour’s upwash. The pressure difference increases as we go at the end of the V-Formation, so the birds at the back spend very less energy than the birds upfront. This formation also helps fighter aircraft to improve their fuel efficiency.

Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs