Microlight Flies With Rare Birds

THE SECRET of the classic 'V' flying formation adopted by flocks of birds may have been revealed, thanks to the endeavours of a single-minded scientist. For more than a decade now Dr Johannes Fritz has been using his microlight aircraft to teach Northern Bald Ibis the migratory routes between their summer and winter feeding grounds in Tuscany and the Austrian and German Alps. Scientists found that the ibises positioned themselves in areas that afforded them an aerodynamic advantage by enabling them to capitalise on swirls of upward-moving air generated by the wings of the bird ahead, according to a study published in Nature.