Dealing with differences in Duck Flight

JAMESTOWN, Pa.—The bursts of wind and heavy rain kept some birds at bay, but the Tweetspeak group still got some good looks at some interesting species. We spotted multiple species of ducks all of whom were flying back and forth from the multiple ponds on the conservation site. I could tell that some of the waterfowl were having an easier time producing flight than others. I wondered while watching these ducks why are some taking flight straight up and why are some using a “runway” style action to begin flight? After some malicious research and looking back into some class notes I found that wing loading is an intricate part in how birds maintain flight. Wing loading is the amount of mass that can be carried by each unit area of wing the bird has. The ducks we spotted had high mass compared to the size of their wings which is why it seemed they were using so much energy to produce flight.