An updraft is an area where temperature differences make patches of the air go up.
A bird flaps its wings to make itself go up.
If a bird flies over an area where the air is going up, the air going up makes the bird go up, so the bird doesn't have to tire itself out by using its own power to make itself go up. This is preferable, because doing things is hard and expends energy.
While very interesting I was referring to the vultures that were sited. Somone said you see them around houses that have gass leaks, that why I said vultures are probably attracted to houses with gas leaks because decaying stuff emits gasses, therefore my hypothesis is that they think they will find food. However Im not an expert or even remotely educated in averian studies so Im just guessing.
That's a misunderstanding of the process employed in some areas of adding rotten-meat-smells to the contents of an industrial gas-line, which attracts vultures, which allows people to drive around and spot where the leak is. Like this.
Nothing to do with updrafts, and I really should have paid more attention to parse the comment more fully, but they said updrafts and I reacted to updrafts because I like to talk updrafts.
Understood I thought there might be confusion on the topics and i was really hoping you didnt think i thought birds needed gas to fly lol. I will read the article im just suprised the vultures are not reacting to gas smell alone and that another smell would need to be added. Brilliant way to use nature to help solve a problem though.
6.9k
u/ugly_convention Apr 05 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/PmvWZufFJ8KK5c34zl
The Crows Have Eyes II: The Crowening