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Body frontal area in passerine birds

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Author

Summary, in English

Projected body frontal area is used when estimating the parasite drag of bird flight. We investigated the relationship between projected frontal area and body mass among passerine birds, and compared it with an equation based on waterfowl and raptors, which is used as default procedure in a widespread software package for flight performance calculations. The allometric equation based on waterfowl/raptors underestimates the frontal area compared to the passerine equation presented here. Consequently, revising the actual frontal areas of small birds will concomitantly change the values of the parasite drag coefficient. We suggest that the new equation S-b = 0.0129m(B)(0.61) (m(2)) where m(B) is body mass (kg) should be used when a value of frontal area is needed for passerines.

Publishing year

2003

Language

English

Pages

159-162

Publication/Series

Journal of Avian Biology

Volume

34

Issue

2

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Biological Sciences

Status

Published

Research group

  • Animal Flight Lab

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0908-8857