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Flight Mechanics And Control Of Escape Manoeuvres In Hummingbirds. I. Flight Kinematics, Bo Cheng, Bret W. Tobalske, Donald R. Powers, Tyson L. Hedrick, Susan M. Wethington, George T.C. Chiu, Xinyan Deng

Faculty Publications - Department of Biological & Molecular Science

Hummingbirds are nature’s masters of aerobatic manoeuvres. Previous research shows that hummingbirds and insects converged evolutionarily upon similar aerodynamic mechanisms and kinematics in hovering. Herein, we use three-dimensional kinematic data to begin to test for similar convergence of kinematics used for escape flight and to explore the effects of body size upon manoeuvring. We studied four hummingbird species in North America including two large species (magnificent hummingbird, Eugenes fulgens, 7.8 g, and blue-throated hummingbird, Lampornis clemenciae, 8.0 g) and two smaller species (broad-billed hummingbird, Cynanthus latirostris, 3.4 g, and black-chinned hummingbirds Archilochus alexandri, 3.1 g). Starting from a steady hover, …