Researchers have figured out the reason behind why birds fly in a V formation. The V formation helps the birds to conserve energy as the bird ahead provide advantages to others of swirls of upward-moving air. The air is generated by the wings of the bird ahead and the following birds do not have to use enough energy to go up in the air.

This is what researches concluded after fitting lightweight sensors on 14 northern bald ibises. They trained the birds to migrate 1000-kilometre route from Austria to Tuscany.

Findings of the study have been reported in the journal Nature. Researchers said that birds positioned themselves at places that were aerodynamically optimal. ''We've been wondering for years whether flapping birds can save energy by following each other in the right way. 'This work answers that question, and the answer is yes", said Geoffrey Spedding, Chairman of the aerospace and mechanical engineering department at the University of Southern California.

The birds were trained to follow a microlight so that they can migrate. Researchers are trying to reintroduce them in the wild and that is why training them to navigate the migration route which is not used by the birds anymore. This also provided researchers a chance to study the theory of V formations.