Hummingbirds use two distinct sensory strategies to control their flight, depending on whether they're hovering or in forward motion, according to new research by University of British Columbia (UBC) zoologists.
Plants & Animals
Jan 10, 2024
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Most birds that flit through dense, leafy forests have a strategy for maneuvering through tight windows in the vegetation—they bend their wings at the wrist or elbow and barrel through.
Plants & Animals
Nov 9, 2023
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35
A new study, using the digitized scans of beaks from over 8,700 bird species, is shedding light on how evolution changes at different scales. While the general principles of evolution by natural selection have been known ...
Evolution
Nov 8, 2023
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A 50-year project recently came to fruition for UConn researchers. In their paper recently published in The American Naturalist, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Emeritus Professor Robert Colwell and his colleagues—all ...
Evolution
Aug 22, 2023
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175
You may not realize it, but that backyard hummingbird feeder filled with sugar water is a natural experiment in fermentation—yeast settle in and turn some of the sugar into alcohol.
Plants & Animals
Jun 22, 2023
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Hummingbirds have the fastest metabolism of any animal. The tropical hummingbirds that live in the Andes Mountains in South America must expend considerable energy to maintain their high body temperatures in cold environments.
Plants & Animals
Mar 15, 2023
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The pink-throated brilliant hummingbird, Heliodoxa gularis, has, unsurprisingly, a brilliant pink throat. So does its cousin, the rufous-webbed brilliant hummingbird, Heliodoxa branickii. When scientists found a Heliodoxa ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 28, 2023
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Hummingbirds, native to North and South America, are among the smallest and most agile birds in the world. Often barely larger than a thumb, they are the only bird species that can fly not only forwards, but also backwards ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 12, 2023
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Hummingbirds occupy a unique place in nature: They fly like insects but have the musculoskeletal system of birds. According to Bo Cheng, the Kenneth K. and Olivia J. Kuo Early Career Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 12, 2022
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116
Yale ornithologist Richard Prum has spent years studying the molecules and nanostructures that give many bird species their rich colorful plumage, but nothing prepared him for what he found in hummingbirds.
Plants & Animals
Jun 23, 2022
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