ECR Spotlight – Partha Bhagavatula Free

Partha Bhagavatula

How did you become interested in biology?

I was born in a city in eastern India. As a child, I had a deep love for nature and a keen ability to observe animals in the wild. Eastern India is home to many resident bird species, as well as migratory birds that arrive during the Indian winter. I became a member of the Bombay Natural History Society, which publishes a magazine called Hornbill. This magazine featured excellent photographs of birds in India, helping me identify different species – an invaluable resource in the pre-internet age. Over time, I also learned to recognize birds by their calls. My favorite bird call is that of the coppersmith barbet (Psilopogon haemacephalus). Its unique, rhythmic call marks the onset of spring, making it a familiar and cherished sound even today. All these factors along with an excellent biology teacher in school, crystallized my love for biology.

Describe your scientific journey and your current research focus

I commenced my academic voyage with an undergraduate degree in biochemistry, zoology and chemistry, followed by a Master's degree in zoology. I then pursued a PhD in neuroscience (in the laboratory of Prof. M. V. Srinivasan) at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. After completing my PhD, I undertook postdoctoral training at Queen's University in Kingston, ON, Canada, and Concord Field Station (in the laboratory of Prof. Andrew Biewener) at Harvard University in Boston, MA, USA. I am hoping to continue my research in the field of avian and insect flight.

How would you explain the main findings of your paper to a member of the public?

Although ample effort has been dedicated to probing how birds land on static perches, surprisingly little is known about how birds deal with landing on a moving perch. Here, we investigated the ability of peach-faced lovebirds to fly towards and land on a sinusoidally swinging perch equipped with a force–torque sensor at different actuated frequencies and speeds. The results reveal, for the first time, that birds bias their landings to the end phases (extremes) of perch oscillation when perch velocity approaches zero. Our kinematics and force–torque analysis show that this reduces the landing impact to the feet and the pitch torques exerted about the perch. The results also pave the way for future analyses of visual cues based on image motion that may guide robust landing on moving supports in lovebirds and other avian species. Our work also has relevance for improving the landing control of unmanned drones.

What do you enjoy most about research, and why?

The key driving force behind my research is the desire to explore the unknown and venture into domains where no one has gone before. A secondary motivation is studying freely behaving animals, particularly birds, to contribute to their conservation and better understand their natural visually guided flight behaviors. Animals possess unique survival skills that enable them to thrive in the wild, with some abilities exclusive to specific groups. For example, birds have tetrachromatic vision which allows them to see, ultraviolet, red, green and blue colors. I am especially interested in studying these remarkable adaptations and their biological significance. Research has also given me the opportunity to travel, meet like-minded people, discuss ideas and collaborate on advanced projects.

What is the most important piece of equipment for your research, what does it do and what question did it help you address?

I specialize in motion capture analysis, with high-speed cameras being the most critical tool in my research. These advanced cameras allow me to film and record freely flying birds at a very high temporal resolution (200 Hz or above), capturing rapid movements that would otherwise be impossible to observe and analyze by the naked eye. Using this video footage, I conduct kinematic analysis to address numerous questions in avian flight. My research explores topics such as how birds land on moving perches, how they use edge detection during landing, the role of optic flow cues in freely flying birds inside a tunnel, and the mechanisms of collision avoidance in birds. By analyzing these behaviors, I aim to gain a deeper understanding of avian flight dynamics, which has implications for both biological research and bio-inspired flying systems.

What is your favourite animal, and why?

My favourite animals include several remarkable and diverse species. In the air, the budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus) – an iconic Australian bird – was the model organism I worked with during my PhD research. The ruby-throated hummingbird (Archilochus colubris), with its amazing ability to hover, is a species I would love to study if the opportunity arises. In water, among flightless birds, I like the emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri), which cannot fly but is an excellent swimmer and thrives in Antarctica. Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus), known for their intelligence, can communicate with each other, but we still know very little about their language. On land, my favourite animal is the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus), the fastest land animal. I also find elephants (Elephas maximus) fascinating; they are gentle giants, yet there is still much to explore about how they communicate.