Parent birds feeding young—To walk or to fly?

✍ Scribed by Alasdair I. Houston

• Book ID: 104154782
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 277 KB
• Volume: 142
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-5193
• DOI: 10.1016/s0022-5193(05)80217-6

✦ Synopsis

The way in which parent birds should collect food for their young has been analysed using the maximization of various currencies. In this paper I consider whether a bird should walk or fly on its journey to and from the foraging area. Under the maximization of gross rate of energy delivery, it is always optimal to fly. Other currencies predict a critical travel distance above which it is optimal to fly. When the currency is net rate of energetic gain, there can be two critical distances, /)N~ and DN2, with walking being optimal for distances below/gNi and above DN2, and flying being optimal for distances between /gNI and /9N2-