Lentink’s team turned to the humble pigeon in order to discover these secrets of avian flight. “[They’re] under-appreciated fliers,” Lentink told Popular Mechanics. In a report published in Science Robotics, Lentink and his team discovered that pigeons—as well as most other flying birds—do not use individual muscles to control each of their feathers, but instead move them in sync, in groups, with the help of a special ligament. “What we discovered is that instead of a bird moving each and every feather, controlled by a muscle, they combine the motion of feathers,” he says. “It’s really elegant.” Knowing this, scientists built a robotic bird, called PigeonBot, to exhibit this property of bird wings. One day, small aircraft like drones could take advantage of this natural design.
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