Which
Birds fly backwards?
In
quick, darting flight, in sudden stops and starts, in complete mastery of
movement in the air, the supreme artists in the bird world are hummingbirds.
They can hover like helicopters, move straight up, down, or sideways-and they
can fly backwards. Because their movements are too rapid for the eye to follow,
it was long believed that their backward flight was an optical illusion. It was
not until they were filmed with an incredibly fast, stroboscopic camera that it
was proved beyond doubt that hummingbirds can fly backwards. They beat their
wings faster than any other bird, and the name ‘hummingbirds’ comes from the
noise made by their wings as they vibrate at 200 beats per second. One species,
the broad-tailed hummingbird, actually takes flight before it leaves its perch.
The camera shows that it pulls its perch up with its feet before it lets go.
Hummingbirds
come from the Americas. Some have long tongue to feed on the nectar in flowers
and others eat insects. The Cuban bee hummingbird is the world’s smallest bird
at 5.5 cm long and weighs 2 grammas which is less than one tenth of an ounce.
