Aerial shaking performance of wet Anna's hummingbirds
Open accessAbstract
External wetting poses problems of immediate heat loss and long-term pathogen growth for vertebrates. Beyond these risks, the locomotor ability of smaller animals, and particularly of fliers, may be impaired by water adhering to the body. Here, we report on the remarkable ability of hummingbirds to perform rapid shakes in order to expel water from their plumage even while in flight. Kinematic performance of aerial versus non-aerial shakes (i.e. those performed while perching) was compared. Oscillation frequencies of the head, body and tail were lower in aerial shakes. Tangential speeds and accelerations of the trunk and tail were roughly similar in aerial and non-aerial shakes, but values for head motions while perching were twice as high when compared with aerial shakes [corrected] . Azimuthal angular amplitudes for both aerial and non-aerial shakes reached values greater than 180° for the head, greater than 45° for the body trunk and slightly greater than 90° for the tail and wings. Using a feather on an oscillating disc to mimic shaking motions, we found that bending increased average speeds by up to 36 per cent and accelerations of the feather tip up to fourfold relative to a hypothetical rigid feather. Feather flexibility may help to enhance shedding of water and reduce body oscillations during shaking.
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The vibration frequency of other behaviors such as shivering and shaking dry scales negatively with body mass across species.
“The vibration frequency of other behaviors, such as shivering and shaking dry, scales negatively with body mass across species [17–20].”
From Biomechanics of the Peacock’s Display: How Feather Structure and Resonance Influence Multimodal Signaling (2016) · cites this paper as [19]
The Introduction reports that wet-shaking frequency varies inversely with shoulder width across terrestrial mammals, supporting the direction of the shaking-dry relationship. It does not establish scaling with body mass or address shivering frequency. (LLM, conf=0.87)
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- Authors
- Ortega-Jimenez, V. M., & Dudley, R.
- Affiliations
- University of California 1 , ,
- Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (PA)
- ORCID
- Dudley, Robert
- Venue
- Journal of The Royal Society Interface
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 2011-11-09
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 70
- Pages
- 1093-1099
- ISSN
- 1742-5662 (ISSN-L)
- 1742-5689
- PMC
- PMC3306655
- OpenAlex
- W2120612931
- Cited by
- 25
- References
- 29
- Citations by year
- 2025: 3 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 1 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 5 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 4.02
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- correction (2012-06-13)
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of The Royal Society Interface (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Aerospace Engineering › Biomimetic flight and propulsion mechanisms
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Avian ecology and behavior
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Physiological and biochemical adaptations
- Keywords
- Anna's hummingbird, hummingbirds, flight kinematics, body oscillations
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Behavior, Animal, Biomechanical Phenomena, Birds, Feathers, Flight, Animal, Male, Water
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