Did you ever wonder why geese fly in a "V" formation?

By David McClelland

Living in Michigan gives us many opportunities to watch geese flying overhead.
I often marvel at how perfectly they fly in formation. I wondered what instinct enables them to fly in that perfect "V" formation, so I decided to research the subject.

First, lets get the terms right. The female goose is called a goose (shouldn't there be a better name?) and the male is a gander. The babies are called goslings and a group of geese is called a gaggle.

It appears that, as geese take flight, they lift off in a squawking, disorganized gaggle. Yet, in a matter of seconds, a line begins to emerge from the mass of brown feathers. The line straightens, arches slightly and then, as if on cue, bends sharply to form a perfect "V" shape. Just how and why do they do that?

Simply put, scientists believe that they do it to conserve energy and because it makes it easier for them to keep track of every bird. Flying in a "V" enables the group to add about 70% more distance and their heart rates are lower.

One explanation is that it is simply easier for them to fly that way because of the vortices that provide lift for the following birds. When the lead bird flaps its wings, two vortices are shed, one from each wing tip. They consist of a rolling tube of air, the upper portion of which is moving forward and the lower part rearward. The lift for a given stroke size is greater and following bird needs to do less work as they benefit from this free lift. To take advantage of this phenomenon, the following two birds must be behind the wing tips of the lead bird in the "V" formation. In other words, they can draft off each other.

Since the lead bird has to work the hardest of all of the birds in the formation, the lead bird eventually tires and drops back and another bird takes the lead for a while.

How about the honking that the geese do as they fly overhead? What does that do? Scientists believe that the geese behind honk to encourage the geese in front to keep up the speed.

OK. That is what happens and that is why we think they fly in the "V", but just how is it that each new generation of geese knows to fly this way? They learn from their parents.
They really do and they are good learners and they never break tradition.

Ducks are the same. Here is an example. On the Bloomfield Hills Lahser High School property, before the school was built, a family of ducks built their nests south of where the school is now and simply walked with their young in a straight line to Orange Lake which is north of the school. They really like to swim and fish in Orange Lake.
Now, each year, the mother duck leads her flock of youngsters up to the south-west door of the school and they all wait for a student, teacher or janitor to open the door so she can lead them down the hall to the door on the north-west to again wait for someone to open that door and let them proceed to the lake. Every year it is the same. I'm not making this up. It is true.

Back to geese; finally, when a goose becomes ill or suffers a gunshot wound and goes down, two other geese go down with it and stay with it until it either is able to fly again or dies. We can learn a lot from geese. The Air Force and NASA have been studying them for decades.