There ’s a pretty big variety in the wench world . From tiny Sir Christopher Wren and goldfinches to flightless species likeostrichesand powerful swimmers likegannets , the birds of major planet Earth have a lot of niches overcompensate . However , there is only one bird group that can truly fly backwards .
Hummingbirds are noted for being pretty ; in fact , they are the mostcolorfulof all known bird mintage . They also have a lot of other tricks packed into those bittie diminutive bodies . They are capable of flapping their wings20 to 80times a second and can even reach speeds that rivalfighter jet plane . However , these wings are not like other birds , instead , they are super stiff and stick almost straight out from the hummingbird ’s body .
To allow them to pull off their fancy flight play , hummingbird have unique joints that provide the skirt to turn out their wing in a figure - eight design . This allows them to sustain their hectic flapping docket and fly rearwards for a free burning period . Some birds are adequate to of quiver backwards for abbreviated catamenia , but only hummingbird are the true superior of this accomplishment . Using their wrist joints , they can father rhytidectomy on the upstroke , a effort not potential in most other coinage .
“ It has adopted an insect - like flight style with the evolutionary inheritance of a craniate , ” said Tyson Hedrick , a biologist at the University of North Carolina , and lead author of a2011 subject , toldNature . “ It has get essentially the same arm off-white that we have , but it ’s doing this funny thing with its shoulder , flipping the annexe back and forth like a yield rainfly rather than a pigeon . ”
To get through humble scuttle , the birds pull their wing close to their organic structure and flash through the hole like a bullet . They may also turn sideways to sail exceptional possibility .
" One narrative that I tell myself , ” life scientist Marc Badger toldScience News , “ is that once they get a sense of what ’s on the other side and a sense of their surroundings , then they flip-flop over to this ballistic technique to avoid the aftermath . ”
