Evolving over millions of years, birds have refined solutions to problems that humans wrestle with today, including how to fly silently or hover during flight. Humans are studying and adapting birds’ amazing abilities through biomimicry, the practice of borrowing nature's tested designs to solve human challenges. For example, the structure of owl feathers is helping to design quieter wind turbine blades and aircraft, while kingfisher beak morphology inspired improvements to Japan's bullet trains, eliminating the sonic boom they produced when exiting tunnels.
Ornithopters are no longer limited to sci-fi imaginings (see Frank Herbert’s, Dune) – these Flapping-Wing Aerial Vehicles (drones) were inspired by birds and insects so they fly without rotors. These devices are agile, maneuverable and quiet, mimicking many features of bird flight. Researchers and engineers continue to study bird mechanics as a way to improve designs, including newly published work which looked at how birds grasp branches to effortlessly perch. Mimicking and adapting this ability into new robotic designs could reduce energy expenditure without sacrificing functionality.