Aerodynamics, evolution and ecology of avian flight

Animal flight poses intriguing questions about biological adaptation, from how flight could have evolved to the morphological and physiological designs that enable flight to occur. Aerodynamic theory provides ecologists with a useful tool for understanding the basic physics of flight, but analysing flapping flight aerodynamics in birds is difficult, with interesting physiological complications. Recent research, using sophisticated techniques, has generated new and exciting insights about the evolution of flight, the function of tails and the ecological adaptations to a flying lifestyle.