Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds:

Smallest bird on earth

Hummingbirds are fascinating birds that are always fun to watch. These birds are able to hover in mid-air, dart from side to side, go straight up or down, or even backwards. They can out-fly and out-maneuver birds hundreds of times their size. There are many factors that contribute to the hummingbirds’ ability to fly so easily through the air.

A hummingbird’s wings are shaped so that they are slightly rounded on the top. “Their wings flaps 15-80 times per second, depending on the type of species they are. The Giant Hummingbird’s wings beat 8-10 beats per second, the wings of medium size hummingbirds beat 20-25 beats per second and the smallest beat 70 beats per second.”< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummingbirds>. Bernoulli’s principle explains why this helps the hummingbird has the ability to fly deliberately backwards or vertically, and to maintain position while drinking from flower blossoms. “They can fly more than five hundred miles without pausing to rest.” Doyle, Brian. “Joyas Voladoras.” The Best American Essay. ED Susan Orlean. Boston: Houghton

Miflin 2005. 161-180. The air passing over the top of the wing must travel further than the air going under the wing. As the hummingbird moves forward, the velocity of the fluid increases over the wing and the pressure above the wing is reduced. The higher end under the hummingbird’s wing provides lift for the bird. Hummingbirds have unusually strong muscles that enable them to raise and lower their wings with great power. As the hummingbirds thrust their wings up and down, they fly into the air with amazing agility and speed. The sleek outline of the bird and smooth feathers create little drag as the bird darts through the air. Thus, it will be to no surprise if we ever saw Hummingbirds flying upside down.

Another factor that helps explain how hummingbirds fly is called Archimedes’s Principle. In his principle, hummingbird stays in the air at a high altitude because it is held up by a buoyant force. The buoyant force is equal to the weight of the volume of fluid it displaces. The Venturi effect is evident when the hummingbird holds it’s wings close to it’s body. The rapid air flow helps the bird maneuver quickly.

“Hummingbirds are durable only in life. In death they are delicate, their wings are hollow and fragile, thus almost never fossilize. This was one of the reason that the recent discovery of 30-million-year-old fossil bird that remains may include an ancestral hummingbird.”. Its fossil specimens had long, slender bills ,and shortened upper wings bones topped by a knob. Surprisingly, fossils were found in the southern part of Germany which was far away from the modern hummingbird territory.

“Hummingbird’s aggression were shaped by sipping nectar as often as every minutes. They compete by challenging and bullying each other in mid-air; post up and pirouette, dive to the grass, and paddle backward in dances of dominance that end suddenly as they begin. They will compete each other up in tall mountains