麻豆约拍

Adam Walton visits Bangor University to hear about the latest research into migrating birds.
Dr Charles Bishop, a senior lecturer in Zoology at the School of Biological Sciences, explains his work researching the flight of birds and how technology has enabled us to measure not only where they fly to when migrating, but also their heart rate. We also hear about how different birds vary their flying, with bar headed geese being almost constant wing flappers, but at the other end of the scale the frigate bird can glide for many miles without flapping, and stay airborne for weeks at a time.

We hear from Dr Steven Portugal who has been researching the question of why some birds fly and migrate in a "vee fomation". He got the chance to work with the critically endangered Waldrapp Ibis.

Also, Dr Richard Holland, a lecturer in biology, zoology and biological sciences, explains research into how birds are able to navigate so accurately. They seem to be using the Earth's magnetic field, but also, surprisingly, their sense of smell seems to play an important role.