To our eyes, they often are a blur. But high-speed cameras show us what makes these birds perfect flying machines NationalHummingbirdDay
, we’ve come to the backyard of a flamingo pink house in Palpite, Cuba. Ornithologist Christopher Clark has a car full of gear to unload: cameras, sound equipment, a sheer cube-shaped cage. Within minutes of arriving this May morning, Clark is spinning around in circles. He’s trying to follow the path of a bullet with wings as it whizzes from one clump of orange fire bush blossoms to the next.
Most birds produce substantial upward force—aka lift force—only with the downward flap of their wings. The secret to the hummingbird’s hovering ability lies in the near symmetry of its wing motion, which allows it to produce lift during the upstroke as well as the downstroke.
When Alejandro Rico-Guevara, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, made high-speed films of hummingbirds drinking from feeders and flowers, he found that their forked tongues are more like a catcher’s mitt than like rigid drinking straws. Each tube of the tongue unfurls to snatch the nectar in a hundredth of a second. Then the birds pump the liquid into their gullets by squeezing their beaks.
The new images were groundbreaking, but they didn’t solve the mystery of how hummingbirds can flap their wings as quickly as they do. Typically, the faster a muscle contracts, the less force it generates. So how do hummingbirds produce enough force to stay aloft? The forked tongue of this Anna’s hummingbird can be seen through the glass vessel from which it’s drinking artificial nectar. To fuel their energetic flight, hummingbirds may consume more than the equivalent of their body weight in nectar each day, via a tongue that makes a sipping motion up to 15 times a second. To keep the birds healthy in captivity, the artificial nectar they’re fed contains protein powder and other nutrients, seen here as white specks.
Deutschland Neuesten Nachrichten, Deutschland Schlagzeilen
Similar News:Sie können auch ähnliche Nachrichten wie diese lesen, die wir aus anderen Nachrichtenquellen gesammelt haben.
New DNA Research Unlocks Secrets of Native Rodents’ Rat Race to New LandsNew research has mapped the DNA from more than 150 species of native rodents from across Australia, New Guinea, and Melanesian islands. It paints a clearer picture of how they’re related and how they ended up spreading across the Pacific. Lead author Dr. Emily Roycroft from The Australian Nationa
Weiterlesen »
5 Secrets From Former Best Western Employees — Best LifeWe're sure you thought you knew all the ins and outs of this hotel chain, but there's definitely a secret or two you might have been missing. Former employees dish all about it.
Weiterlesen »
To survive frigid nights, hummingbirds cool themselves to record-low temperaturesOn NationalHummingbirdDay, learn more about how these tiny flyers save energy by entering a hibernationlike state overnight.
Weiterlesen »
“They Were Being Jerked Around”: Former AG Bill Barr Defends FBI Search Warrant Of Mar-A-LagoFormer allies of President Donald Trump criticize the mishandling of top secret government documents.
Weiterlesen »
‘She-Hulk’: Every Episode 3 Easter EggThere are some interesting Marvel secrets this week...
Weiterlesen »