hummingbird
dr. dolittle | March 13, 2016 Image of ruby-throated hummingbird by Joe Schneid, Louisville, Kentucky (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
In a new study published in The Auk, scientists report that well-fueled older tiny Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) might be capable of non-stop flights of over 4,000 kilometers, wind conditions permitting. They made this remarkable observation while studying birds from 2010-2014 as the animals made stopovers at a wildlife refuge during their annual migration to South America.
In general, older birds not only…
dr. dolittle | September 3, 2015A new study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences provides evidence that hummingbird tongues act like micropumps when drinking nectar. This finding is in contrast to the long-held belief that their tongues use capillary action to pull in fluids. A team of researchers from the University of Connecticut used high-speed film to capture 18 species of wild hummingbirds as they drank from special transparent feeders. They made sure to mimic wildflowers by developing feeders with similar shapes, volumes and concentrations of nectar as the real thing. What they…
dr. dolittle | December 10, 2014New research from Vanderbilt University shows that hummingbirds and insects have a lot in common...when it comes to flying at least. The researchers placed nontoxic paint on the wing of a ruby-throated hummingbird at 9 different spots then videotaped the animal flying at 1,000 frames per second with 4 cameras simultaneously. Using 3D simulations of the hummingbird flight, they discovered that the tiny birds stir up air around their wings in a way similar to insects like mosquitoes and dragonflies.
Larger birds obtain much of their energy for flight from the downstroke of the wing as it pushes…
dr. dolittle | April 23, 2013
Today's symposia included a session on "Integrative Cardiovascular and Respiratory Physiology of Non-model Organisms" as well as the August Krogh Distinguished Lecture.
This year's Krogh lecture was given by Dr. Stan Lindstedt from Northern Arizona University. Dr. Lindstedt is arguably best known for publishing work showing that the metabolic rate of an animal is negatively correlated with body mass. In other words, smaller animals have a higher metabolic rate than larger animals. Knowing that relationship could have saved Tusko the elephant from a whopping dose of LSD (1962, prior to the…
edyong | January 21, 2010
The partnerships between flowering plants and the animals that pollinate them are some of the most familiar in the natural world. The active nature of animals typically casts the plants as the passive partners in this alliance, but in reality, they're just as involved. That becomes particularly apparent when the animals renege on their partnership.
Nicotinia attenuata, a type of wild US tobacco, is usually pollinated by hawkmoths. To lure them in, it opens its flowers at night and releases alluring chemicals. But pollinating hawkmoths often lay their eggs on the plants they visit and the…
grrlscientist | October 14, 2009tags: animals, hummingbirds, insects, biology, streaming video
This is a lesson in observation. This is a North American animal. I know what this is (and I knew as soon as I saw the still image on the video) but I am asking you: what is this; hummingbird or insect? And for a bonus, can you tell me the species?
This is a Common Clearwing, also known as the Hummingbird Clearwing Moth, Hemaris thysbe.
grrlscientist | October 13, 2009tags: hummingbird, physics, science, surface tension, Keith Johnson, streaming video
A flying hummingbird flaps its wings up to 70 times per second (its heart rate can reach 1,260 beats per minute). This video slows down a flying hummingbird so we can watch how it flies and hovers in front of a hummingbird feeder.
Here's what hummingbirds look like when not slowed down;
This was filmed in British Columbia, Canada. Soundtrack is 'The Orient' by Alex Yiannaras.
edyong | February 10, 2009This is the fourth of eight posts on evolutionary research to celebrate Darwin's bicentennial.
Charles Darwin was a visionary in more ways than one. In 1862, Darwin was studying a Malagasy orchid called Angraecum sesquipedale, whose nectar stores lie inaccessibly at the bottom of a 30cm long spur (tube). Darwin predicted that the flower was pollinated by a moth with tongue long enough to raid the spur.
Few people believed him, but in 1903, zoologists discovered Darwin's predicted moth, Xanthopan morgani praedicta, and it did indeed have a very long tongue. Darwin accurately predicted the…
grrlscientist | January 21, 2008tags: hummingbird, photography, subway art, AMNH, NYC, NYCLife
Hummingbird in flight,
as portrayed in tiles on the walls of the NYC uptown subway stop (A-B-C)
at 81st and Central Park West. (ISO, no zoom, no flash).
Image: GrrlScientist 2008 [wallpaper size].
Read more about the AMNH tile artworks and see the AMNH tile artworks photographic archives -- with all the animals identified.
zooillogix | April 26, 2007A nearly extinct species of hummingbird has been captured on film for the first time demonstrating its spatula-crazed mating dance. The aptly named Marvelous Spatuletail lives in a single, isolated valley in northern Peru. There are only 350 - 1,000 thought left to exist. The video really is extraordinary.
Marvelous Spatuletail, Lodigesia mirabilis digg_url='http://zooillogix.blogspot.com/2007/04/marvelous-spatula-tale.html';
zooillogix | March 16, 2007In honor of St. Paddy's Day, a tribute to being green.
Northland Green Gecko, naultinus grayii
Green Lynx Spider, peucetia viridansGreen Hermit Hummingbird, phaethornis guy (we think)
Green Grasshopper, campylacantha olivacea