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Home arrow The Sociable Nest arrow Amazing Anna's Hummingbirds (Calypte anna)
Amazing Anna's Hummingbirds (Calypte anna) PDF Print E-mail
Written by Katja Soehngen   
Thursday, 11 June 2009

Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna) (by kevincole)

 

Photo taken by Kevin Cole ( with Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en )

 

For its size, courting flier dives faster than a returning space shuttle

 

(Source Susan Milius article on Hummingbirds at www.sciencenews.org)

 

" Analyzing the recordings revealed that birds at first flapped their wings as they dove. For a short period at their peak speed, the birds folded their wings and drilled down through the air at speeds up to 27.3 meters per second (61 miles per hour).

Adjust for body length, and the world just got a new fastest bird, Clark says. The hummingbirds’ speed reached 385 body lengths per second, easily beating the peregrine falcon’s recorded dives at 200 body lengths per second. (Though the falcon was diving at 70 meters per second.) A fighter jet with its afterburners on reaches 150 body lengths per second, and a space shuttle screaming down through the atmosphere hits 207 body lengths per second."

 

" When the birds experience the maximum g-forces in their dives, Clark notes, the birds enter the range where human pilots, more vulnerable due to larger bodies and circulatory systems, have to be careful about the risk of temporary blackouts.

 

Have a look at the awesome video: http://vimeo.com/5078399

 

Have a look here ( http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/44531/title/Hummingbird_pulls_Top_Gun_stunts ) for the whole article.

 

The whole article is based on an abstract of the Proceedings of the Royal Society Biological Sciences: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2009/06/05/rspb.2009.0508.abstract

 

» 7 Comments
1Comment
at Thursday, 11 June 2009 14:56by wildtuinman
What a great shot!!!
2Comment
at Thursday, 11 June 2009 14:58by wildtuinman
Man there are some great photos out there...
3Comment
at Thursday, 11 June 2009 15:45by Jay
wow absolutely stunning shot!!! and what an interesting article, awesome stuff, thank you so much for posting this up, Katja!!!!
4Comment
at Thursday, 11 June 2009 16:02by Muis
Awesome photo & write up Katja :-) Amazing speeds they reach!
5Comment
at Thursday, 11 June 2009 19:00by Laine
Truly amazing speeds!! 
 
thanks so much katja.. 
 
this is one fantastic photo!! sheesh kabobs!!
6Comment
at Friday, 12 June 2009 07:21by DotDaan
Brilliant shot Katja !!
7Comment
at Saturday, 13 June 2009 11:46by Candys Style
Those speeds are incredible, it is amazing that such a small bird can with stand the change in air pressures that humans can't... 
Thank you for sharing, Katja!
» Post Comment
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