Meeting Abstract
Migrating birds can sustain the high rate of energy expenditure required for flight for as long as a week or more without supplemental food or water. Mortality during migration can be high, and so understanding the extrinsic and intrinsic factors that influence individual endurance flight performance is crucial to understanding the evolution of migration. I will review what has been learned from wind tunnel studies about the energetics and physiology of bird flight and describe how new ground and space-based tracking should be used to field test what is learned from captive birds. I will discuss the effects of factors like diet, disease status, high altitude, humidity, and environmental contaminants on flight performance, and illustrate how conditions have never been better to study bird migration physiology in the lab and field.
