Flight

Flight

I've always been amazed by birds' flight. If humans had wings, we would probably be crashing, blundering, and falling everywhere, being the clumsy organisms we are. But the flight of birds is graceful, quick, and complicated.

To start, I'll post an old set of photos showing the takeoff progression of a House Finch, which all takes less than 1/10 of a second. Though they're not eye-pleasing images (I filmed the takeoff, then clipped seperate images from the video) they show decently the complicated-but-simple act of taking off that birds probably do 1209803948098 times a day.

Mr. Finch has to position himself into the prime position for takeoff.

One powerful flap provides all the lift the finch will need to set him on his appropriate pathway.

A little flap helps the finch maneuver towards his goal.

He then tucks in his wings, creating the classic "bobbing" look of finch flight:

And he directs himself towards the feeder down below. 

See? A lot more complicated than it looks at first. To get to the feeder and use a minimal amount of energy, the House Finch has to use the best angle, direction, and flapagram (yes, that's a thing now) to calculate the best route to go.

A Purple Finch (The only female I ever saw at my feeders) tries to figure out how to land on my feeder without stepping on a House Finch head. 

Having a fight? Hard. Having an airborne fight? Super hard!! 

The ultraspeed flight of the hummingbird

I remember around ten years ago, some random guy at a bird show said that hummingbirds can beat their wings up to 200  times a second. I didn't buy it then because my little kiddy brain just couldn't imagine that, but I certainly believe it now! The amount of control and manipulation hummingbirds gain from their ultra fast-moving wings and small body is mind-blowing. 

Unfortunately, it also spells a shorter, harder life for the bird, and most hummingbirds don't live too long (There are a few super exceptions- A couple hummers have lived to be more than 9 years old).

Hummingbirds are the only birds that can fly backward! Males display their super-stamina and strength in extremely impressive, energy-consuming courtships that have only a small chance of winning over mates. 

Hummingbirds use their minute wing  control to hover and drink from the typical thin tubes of nectar-rich flowers. 

As well as constantly feeding to ensure that their energy level is up, hummingbirds have to constantly be on the watch to ensure no other hummingbirds are stealing food from their territory. Another hummer found on one's territory will result in an incredibly fast, exciting aerial chase.

Skilled flight of flycatchers

Imagine this. You are hungry, and there's no food left in the kitchen. So instead of cooking up a meal, you have to go about it another way instead. You stand outside in a large park. Every couple of minutes, a random chocolate chip goes flying at a hummingbird's speed through the air somewhere in the park. You must first spot it.  Then you have to run over to it and catch it with your mouth before it flies out of the park, which it will soon. Now repeat this about 1000 times a day, or starve. Oh, and if you have kids, you need to catch 5X more chocolate chips to keep them from starving. Sounds fun, right? 

In order to catch fast, small insects in the air, flycatchers have to be extremely adept at flight and have spectacular vision. 

A Say's Phoebe hovers in the air like a butterfly searching for insects. When it finds one, it will dive down on the insect and grab it. 

Phoebes seem to be on the constant watch for insects. 

Hope you enjoyed this week's post!

-chiccadee