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Fig. 4. Inertial measurements from a steppe eagle in soaring flight. The graph
plots total measured acceleration against time: all three components of
acceleration, angular velocity and orientation are logged by the inertial
measurement unit, but are not shown. The thumbnails show synchronized frames
from a hand-held camcorder (upper row) to provide context, and from a
rearward-facing onboard camera (lower row) to confirm that the instrumentation
remains steady throughout. Dashed lines denote the correspondence of the graph
with the numbered frames. Note how the circled tan-coloured rump contour
feathers remain steady (position of circle identical between images),
indicating that the instrumentation is static with respect to the body. The
visible transients therefore denote real accelerations of the bird, and are
presumably excited by gusts, etc., as the bird is not actively manoeuvring in
this sequence. The downy white feathers that are visible on either side of the
circled contour feather are blowing freely in the wind, so provide no
information on the position of the instrumentation with respect to the
body.
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