Freeway Speed Birds

[Eudoxus]

So I was driving down the Pomona Freeway out of Los Angeles, near Azusa, just a few minutes ago going about 60-65mph, when I glance over and see two white birds. Normal enough, except that they're about six feet off the ground right over the bumper of a car two lanes over, and keeping up with it. The other car was going the same speed I was, about 60-65mph, and the birds were keeping up. It was obvious they were in somewhat turbulent conditions since they were flapping like mad and jinking back and forth. The spectacle lasted about eight or ten seconds before the birds lofted themselves higher in the air and, still going near highway speeds, flew over the sound barrier.

 

 

I just got home, did some research, and it looks like the top speed of most common birds is in the 30-40 knots range. The fastest bird recorded that wasn't diving (the Peregrine Falcon can only do its record speed when going straight down) was a duck that flew at about 47mph (http://www.stanford.edu/group/stanfordbirds/text/essays/How_Fast.html). Not quite fast enough.

 

So how the hell did those two birds fly at highway speed? They were real birds, not something I imagined, or pieces of paper. I could make them out clearly and they were clearly animate. They looked like doves or pigeons, it was hard to tell exactly.

 

 

My tentative hypothesis is that somehow they were using the slipstream of the car to accelerate to highway speeds. I'm not sure how the aerodynamics work, but I can't think of any other way it would work. Anyone else have any thoughts?

[Turtle]

wow! take a video camera next time. a clip like that would go viral! maybe these 2 birds are in the habit of it afterall. while dolphins ride bow waves, i'm not sure how a wake would work to speed them along. mmmmmm.....

Edited April 9, 2012 by Turtle

[Turtle]

got to thinking about bicycle and car racers getting a following boost and "drafting" is the term used for that "free" ride. here's a wiki on it.

 

Drafting (aerodynamics)

Drafting or slipstreaming is a technique where two vehicles or other moving objects are caused to align in a close group reducing the overall effect of drag due to exploiting the lead object's slipstream.

...

Cooperative fluid dynamics techniques like drafting are found in nature as well. Flocks of geese and some other birds fly in a V formation because the wingtip vortices generated by the front bird will create up-wash circulations. The birds flying behind will receive lift force from these up-wash vortices. Thus other birds in the flock do not need to work as hard to achieve lift. Studies show that birds in a V formation place themselves roughly at the optimum distance predicted by simple aerodynamic theory.[6] The theory behind this is the same as the one for the wings of an airplane in general.[citation needed] However it does not work quite the same way as drafting in racing. Birds fly in a flock for better lifting force whereas the race cars stay close for less total aerodynamic drag force. ...

[CraigD]

I second the Wow, Eudoxus. I wouldn’t have thought what you’re describing possible.

 

So my first guess it that it isn’t, and you experiences some sort of perceptual illusions, where either the nearby car wasn’t going as fast as you remember, or the birds weren’t really keeping up with it.

 

Since this explanation is just the long version of a not very satisfying “nuh-hu – you did not!”, I gotta throw out some others.

 

My next is a strong tailwind. Say you’re going 60 MPH, the wind is going a steady or gusting to 30 MPH, the birds are managing 30 MPH, then all they have to manage now is the turbulence from the cars’ 30 MPH relative to the wind speed. Also, that they maintained speed after breaking off is explained.

 

Only after these are ruled out would I consider some sort of slipstreaming. If they were actually lower than and close behind a vehicle, expecially a big one like large, boxy truck, this sound a plausible, but I get the impression this isn’t what you saw.

[Eudoxus]

Well the other car was tailgating a truck. He was about 10-15ft behind an 18-wheeler and the birds were right off his bumper. Also it's possible he was going slightly slower; he was in the far right lane and we were in a gradual right turn, so he might have been going 55-60mph. Still faster than I'd think a bird could do.

 

I completely acknowledge the possibility of an illusion, but if it was illusion it was damn convincing. I will admit that I didn't get as good a look as I wanted; not paying attention on the Pomona Freeway is a good way to end up dead.

[belovelife]

birds surf off the wind of my car often

 

i think its a game for them

 

they fly right at my car and caatch the air strream, mabe its a similar concept

( if you catch my draft )

[willvargas]

I was on the 60 Pomona freeway going east just a few exits before Rosemead around 10:50am today. I saw about 15-20 perfectly white birds that looked like baby owls flying at the speed of my car. I was going about 60mph. I saw them up ahead of me. They were literally flying in between one car in front of the other and keeping up with their speed of 60mph. They then made a 360 degree turn going over the opposite side of the freeway then to passed the back of my car and then they were neck to neck, eye level to my car. I looked over and one seemed to look right at me with its huge dark eyes. I felt like they were interacting somehow. Did you get this same feeling? They exited off the freeway like a car would taking an off ramp exit. So out of this world experience. Awesom;-) :D

[labelwench]

I was entertained last night by a solitary seagull who was riding the air currents over the parking lot when I stepped out for a breath of air at 3:00 a.m. this day, the light already beginning to rise.

 

A few hours ago, we heard a strange sound in the house and hubby, cat and I set about trying to determine the source of origin. We finally decided that it seemed to be coming from the chimney, of all places. We have a cinder-block chimney for our wood stove and inside this there is a 6 inch square clay flue liner. To the peak of our roof is over 25 feet and there is a clean-out for the chimney about 5 feet up from the floor.

 

We opened the door of the house and then hubby lifted out the cast metal cover of the clean-out. I peered in from several feet away and could see some movement and a pair of bright eyes reflecting light. It was indeed a little bird, most likely a young swallow either blown off course by our gusting winds this day or investigating the potential for a nesting site. The wee bird must have been in there for several hours as earlier I had heard some chirping but we always have birds around the deck and I was otherwise occupied at the time and paid it no mind. It very soon came toward the light of the opening, grabbed some air and made two laps inside our 24 x 28 foot cabin without injury before sensing the air movement through the door and seeing itself out safely. :)

 

As we are on the topic of birds and amazing aerial feats, this 2:00 minute video is of a 'murmuration' of starlings might fit in well.

 

Murmuration - it is something amazing to see. No one knows why they do it. Yet each fall, thousands of starlings dance in the twilight above England and Scotland. The birds gather in shape-shifting flocks called murmurations, having migrated in the millions from Russia and Scandinavia to escape winter’s frigid bite. Scientists aren’t sure how they do it, either. The starlings' murmurations are manifestations of swarm intelligence, which in different contexts is practiced by schools of fish, swarms of bees and colonies of ants. As far as I am aware, even complex algorithmic models haven’t yet explained the starlings’ aerobatics, which rely on the tiny birds' quicksilver reaction time of under 100 milliseconds to avoid aerial collisions—and predators—in the giant flock. Two young women were out for a late afternoon canoe ride and fortunately one of them remembered to bring her video camera. What they saw was a wonderful murmuration display, caught in the short video - URL is below.http://vimeo.com/31158841

[Lancewen]

I think you all will find the link below very interesting.

 

 

Top 10 List:

 

The world's fastest birds

 

http://www.thetravelalmanac.com/lists/birds-speed.htm

[Deepwater6]

I have some sort of starling's that come out whenever I go out to cut my fields. They come out of an old barn next door. They will dive-bomb inches from head 10-15 at a time. I assume they are collecting the bugs my tractor is kicking up. I have faith they won't hit me, but they come in so fast it's just a natural reaction to duck. I'm amazed at how they come so close to the ground at such a high rate of speed going vertically then change direction at the very last second.

[maddog]

Well the other car was tailgating a truck. He was about 10-15ft behind an 18-wheeler and the birds were right off his bumper. Also it's possible he was going slightly slower; he was in the far right lane and we were in a gradual right turn, so he might have been going 55-60mph. Still faster than I'd think a bird could do. I completely acknowledge the possibility of an illusion, but if it was illusion it was damn convincing. I will admit that I didn't get as good a look as I wanted; not paying attention on the Pomona Freeway is a good way to end up dead.

I am beginning to wonder if this isn't some phenominae like the 100th Monkey or something. Where some bird learned to do this and lived and so now all birds that live near cities now know how to wind surf the highways & biways of America. Hmm... It get's one to wonder. I see where there is a tricky way of getting just getting near the peak of the slipstream behind vehicle and by maintaining control of the turbulence a bird could be able to travel at a speed close to the speed of the car for a time. This could be learned behavior for a bird. A bird drafting a vehicle following a semi would be a lot easier (say going 55-60), yet could be done by a single vehicle going slower - say 50. What I find fascinating is how the bird (that first did it) learned how since to enter the stream would be tricky - not a high angle attack, just gently slip in. This is gotta' be viral video event once done. Way Kewl!

 

maddog