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UC Davis BIRD Lab

@ucdbirdlab_mae

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Biologically Informed Research and Design (BIRD) Lab at UC Davis led by Dr. Christina Harvey (she/her/hers)

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Graduate students Cooper Cook and Alex Fillman joined @optitrack at OptiFest this past week to represent the BIRD Lab and how we use our motion capture! They made us some new friends and had some time to try out the new gadgets on showcase there. Thanks again for inviting us! 🦅 taken in OptiTrack by @ucdbirdlab_mae

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Birds of prey pull off maneuvers no aircraft can match. At UC Davis, they’re measuring exactly how using #OptiTrack.

At the @ucdbirdlab_mae Center for Animal Locomotion and Innovation (CALI), Professor Christina Harvey and her team fly raptors through a 44-camera OptiTrack volume synced with 1,000fps high-speed video — sub-millimeter flight data that’s informing next-generation drone design and giving rehabilitators quantitative metrics for when an injured bird is ready to fly free.

It’s veterinary medicine and aerospace engineering answering questions neither field could answer alone.

📖 Read the full case study — optitrack.com/bird

Thanks to Christina, her team, the @calraptorcenter California Raptor Center, and @westcoastfalconry West Coast Falconry. 🦅 by @ucdbirdlab_mae

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Our graduate student, Huanglun Adam Zhu, just had his paper posted online this week but he’s too busy working on his next project to celebrate! His paper is on nares-inspired pressure sensing, and how birds might use their noses as sensors in formation flight (read in our bio!).

Now, he’s working on expanding this hypothesis with more wind tunnel testing, but it requires some @optitrack motion capture accuracy. Congrats to Adam and good luck with your next project! 🦅 by @ucdbirdlab_mae

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Calling all UC Davis students to join our Peer Mentoring Program! We’re looking for students of all levels + disciplines who are interested in anything that moves and would like to collaborate with other fields to learn new skills and develop new ideas. Sign up at the link in our bio or: https://ucdavis.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_br5wSmULKjGnZBQ by @ucdbirdlab_mae

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24 days ago

What a day of live bird flights looks like 🎥🦅💨

@westcoastfalconry @optitrack taken in California Raptor Center by @ucdbirdlab_mae

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2 months ago

What can a hawk 🦅 teach us about flight? Maybe more than any aircraft can.

We visited the Center for Animal Locomotion and Innovation (CALI) at UC Davis, where Professor Christina Harvey and her team of researchers @ucdbirdlab_mae use OptiTrack VersaX120 cameras to digitize raptor flight — tracking wings, tails, and bodies with sub-millimeter precision across a 44-camera capture volume (plus 4 Prime Color cameras) — all synced with high sped video cameras using eSync.

Thank you to the California Raptor Center for opening their doors to us, and for @westcoastfalconry for bringing “Don Diego” the hawk to perform! Full customer story coming soon on our website! taken in California Raptor Center by @ucdbirdlab_mae

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We had some extra time this summer for fun projects 🕊️ by @ucdbirdlab_mae

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We had two lovely undergraduates join us this summer for some short projects to help the BIRD Lab! Emiliano joined us through the MESA Program and presented his findings on live flight data with the help of his mentor, Alex. 🦅 Adam joined us through a ROTC Cadet internship and worked on systems that will be used at CALI in the near future! Both were very busy with such short deadlines, but they worked very hard and were very successful (and even found some time to visit the Bug Museum on campus). We’re so grateful to have had them as part of our team! by @ucdbirdlab_mae

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The BIRD Lab is looking for a Social Media Coordinator to help us share our research journeys 🕊️ You’d be teaming up with Dr. Harvey and PhD student Alex to keep everyone in the loop as our work grows. Scan the QR code or DM us for more info! by @ucdbirdlab_mae

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Big shoutout to two of our grad students, Josh and Cooper, who’ve been having a busy summer out at NASA Langley. Both are interning to support their research (and somehow still finding time to support us back here at the BIRD Lab)! 🦉 by @ucdbirdlab_mae

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Christina, Kaleb, and Alex just wrapped up the 2026 Bio-Inspired Sensing, Computing, and Control with International Teams (BISCCITs) in Wageningen, Netherlands! 🇳🇱 Our team presented two posters and led a hands-on Athena Vortex Lattice (AVL) tutorial, sharing our work and swapping ideas with a brilliant community of researchers. Grateful for the conversations, the collaborations, and the memories 🦋🪰🦅 by @ucdbirdlab_mae

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How do hawks keep flying when they’re missing feathers?

By studying Jack, an education ambassador Red-tailed Hawk at the California Raptor Center, researchers at #UCDavis discovered that hawks subtly adjust their wing and tail movements during molt to maintain stable flight.

This study is the first research to emerge from the Center for Animal Locomotion & Innovation, a collaboration between the California Raptor Center at @ucdavisvetmed and the @ucdavisengineering demonstrating how veterinary medicine and engineering can work together to advance wildlife conservation, rehabilitation, and bio-inspired innovation.

Read more - LINK IN BIO taken in UC Davis by @ucdbirdlab_mae

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