Head-mounted camera for reconstructing outdoor behavior in freely flying birds.

A head-mounted, tetherless 4π camera system enabled detailed 3D reconstruction of head position and orientation in freely flying Harris's hawks (Parabuteo unicinctus) during aerial pursuit.

• Why it matters: Existing GPS and inertial tracking cannot capture both precise body-part motion and the positions of moving external objects in natural prey-pursuit tasks.
• What they did: The researchers built a head-mounted 4π camera setup and combined it with a high-resolution environmental scan to measure head motion, optic flow, and target position in wild hawks.
• The result: The approach reconstructed flight trajectories and enabled detailed quantification of head motion and optic flow while the birds tracked and captured airborne targets.

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