The reason why hummingbirds never had an accident

Hummingbirds are one of the smallest birds in the world but possess a lot of peak flying skills. They can stand still in the air to suck bile and the only bird capable of flying back. In particular, they are capable of accelerating up to 50km / h, breaking the flight direction in an instant.

The reason why hummingbirds never had an accident Picture 1
Hummingbirds are sucking nectar.

What makes scientists headaches is how small hummingbirds have amazingly precise and quick navigation .

A group of researchers at the University of British Columbia conducted experiments to find a solution to the mystery.

They designed a tunnel with two walls that could display images. The end of the tunnel is a decoy to help birds perform experiments many times. During flight, different frames are projected on the walls.

The reason why hummingbirds never had an accident Picture 2
Hummingbirds in the laboratory.

Unlike bees that calculate distances to objects by their movement speed, hummingbirds estimate the time before collisions by observing the change in the magnitude of the object regardless of the size of the object. them.

When conducting experiments, scientists realized that hummingbirds rely on the size, the up and down motion of the surrounding object to adjust the direction of flight and identify the altitude.

Since then, they have concluded that hummingbirds avoid collision by analyzing the size, change and relative vertical position of the obstacle.

The reason why hummingbirds never had an accident Picture 3
Hummingbirds in the territorial struggle.

Some hummingbird characteristics you may not know are that they have a heart rate of up to 1200 times per minute . The respiratory rate is also as fast as 250 times / minute, the speed of beating wings ranges from 12 to 90 times per second depending on the species.

Unlike their beautiful appearance, they are quite aggressive, ready to attack other birds and at the same time invade territory.

When the migratory season arrives, hummingbirds can travel as far as 5000km. In return, hummingbirds cannot smell, cannot walk and weigh only 3grams.