Side by side, how the humble hummingbird flies faster than a fighter jet

Mail Online ^ | 11 June 2009 | Sophie Borland

[GSP.FAN]

It may be just four inches long - but the tiny hummingbird flies faster than a space shuttle and a fighter jet. Scientists have discovered that the animal performs the quickest aerial manoeuvre in the natural world compared to its size.

Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley found that the courtship dive of Anna's hummingbird is 58 mph making it the fastest animal on earth

[GSP.FAN]

My Pics

[GSP.FAN]

[Pelham]

Great pics.

[Grammy]

Hummingbird ping!

Come see GSP.FAN’s hummer pictures.

[DennisR]

58mph? Not even close to the peregrine falcon - 200mph in a dive.

[NCC-1701]

Talking about the space shuttle, wouldn’t it be interesting to see how well a hummingbird would fly in zero-g?

[LucyJo]

Wow! Thanks for the ping. That is awesome info about the hummingbird, and I love the pics.

I was interested about the Anna's hummingbird 'singing' with its tail.

Here is an article about that:

Anna's Hummingbird Chirps With Its Tail During Display Dives

This from another story about the dive:

As they come out of their dive, they emit a short "chirping" sound which was recently shown by Dr Clark to come from its tail feathers rather than a "song box" in its throat. It does this by exploiting the noise generated as air rushed through the vanes of its tail feathers at the end of a dive, similar to the sound produced by air moving over the vibrating reed of a clarinet. "This is a new mechanism for sound production in birds," Dr Clark said.

[PGalt]

Great pics! Name/title courtesy ping.

[LucyJo]

Hubby was just telling me that hummingbirds are among a small number of birds that can’t walk. They surely make up for it in flying.

[zeebee]

[My hearts in London - Everett]

Oh, but can the falcon fly backwards? :~)

[patton]

Yes, with a good headwind.

I landed a Cessna that way once ... sort of freaked the passengers out.

“Can you shut off the engine, now? I would like to get out.”

“Uh, no.”

[GSP.FAN]

Excellent pics,i just took this pic last week..

[LucyJo]

Oooh...gorgeous.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Fine shots!

I love to watch them show off for each other, they pull off some amazing stunts.

[GSP.FAN]

Thank you sitting in the backyard for 2hrs waiting to take a pic is so relaxing.
Posting the pic so everyone can enjoy it is a added bonus.

[My hearts in London - Everett]

Thanks for the pics, gsp.fan! I collect hummingbird items and I have an album of hummer pics on my FB page. I love hummingbirds. :~)

[GSP.FAN]

Very protective my hummingbirds are,we have one guy who spends his whole day protecting the feeders,females welcome no males allowed.

[LucyJo]

Sounds wonderful. Hummingbirds are fascinating to me. The beautiful pics are much appreciated.

[DennisR]

Uh...probably not. :)