<p>Birds have an innate ability to maneuver in mid-air, a talent that could have helped their ancestors learn to fly rather than fall from a perch, says a study.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Even ungainly, day-old baby birds successfully use their flapping wings to right themselves when they fall from a nest, a skill that improves with age until they become coordinated and graceful flyers, the findings showed.<br /><br />"From day one, post-hatching, 25 percent of these birds can basically roll in mid-air and land on their feet when you drop them," said Robert Dudley, a professor of integrative biology at University of California - Berkeley in the US.<br /><br />"This suggests that even rudimentary wings can serve a very useful aerodynamic purpose," Dudley noted.<br /><br />The study looked at how baby birds, in this case chukar partridges, pheasant-like game birds from Eurasia, react when they fall upside down. The nestlings right themselves by pumping their wings asymmetrically to flip or roll.<br /><br />By nine days after hatching, 100 percent of the birds in the study have developed coordinated or symmetric flapping, plus body pitch control to right themselves.<br /><br />"These abilities develop very quickly after hatching, and occur before other previously described uses of the wings, such as for weight support during wing-assisted incline running," said Dennis Evangelista from University of North Carolina.<br /><br />"The results highlight the importance of maneuvering and control in development and evolution of flight in birds," Evangelista added. The findings appeared in the online journal Biology Letters.</p>
<p>Birds have an innate ability to maneuver in mid-air, a talent that could have helped their ancestors learn to fly rather than fall from a perch, says a study.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Even ungainly, day-old baby birds successfully use their flapping wings to right themselves when they fall from a nest, a skill that improves with age until they become coordinated and graceful flyers, the findings showed.<br /><br />"From day one, post-hatching, 25 percent of these birds can basically roll in mid-air and land on their feet when you drop them," said Robert Dudley, a professor of integrative biology at University of California - Berkeley in the US.<br /><br />"This suggests that even rudimentary wings can serve a very useful aerodynamic purpose," Dudley noted.<br /><br />The study looked at how baby birds, in this case chukar partridges, pheasant-like game birds from Eurasia, react when they fall upside down. The nestlings right themselves by pumping their wings asymmetrically to flip or roll.<br /><br />By nine days after hatching, 100 percent of the birds in the study have developed coordinated or symmetric flapping, plus body pitch control to right themselves.<br /><br />"These abilities develop very quickly after hatching, and occur before other previously described uses of the wings, such as for weight support during wing-assisted incline running," said Dennis Evangelista from University of North Carolina.<br /><br />"The results highlight the importance of maneuvering and control in development and evolution of flight in birds," Evangelista added. The findings appeared in the online journal Biology Letters.</p>