Hummingbirds are the fastest animals on the planet

When fighter jets fight off full throttle and spacecraft return to Earth, they will rush at tremendous speeds. But in relative terms, those speeds are far behind hummingbird's dive.

When diving, hummingbirds can travel 385 times longer than their body length in a second.Photo: ehow.com.

Hummingbird (bee bird) is a small bird family that lives in North America. When flying they can stand still with a beating frequency up to 70 times / second. This is the only bird on the planet capable of flying backwards. More than 300 species of hummingbirds eat nectar. They own a long beak (up to 10 cm) to dig deep into many flowers. Tongue of hummingbirds is also quite long so they can absorb nectar easily.

Hummingbird wings are unlike the wings of any other bird. They can operate freely in the direction of the shoulder, allowing the bird to stand still, fly back and keep the bird's head fixed. They often fly at speeds of approximately 50 km / h. During the breeding season the males must perform many dive shots to seduce females.

When the hummingbird flies into the territory of the male, the 'guy' will fly high and suddenly dive down. The animal reaches its maximum speed at the last point in the dive's trajectory. Then it cried out loud and spread its tail feathers to catch the attention of the female bird.

A male hummingbird prepared to dive down to impress the female.Photo: pbase.com .

To measure the speed of hummingbirds as they plunge, University of California scientists use dozens of cameras capable of recording fast movements. Results of image analysis showed that male hummingbirds can reach speeds of 92.8 km / h when they dive from a height of 30 meters to impress females. Because the average length of hummingbirds is 10 cm, at that rate, they can travel 385 times the length of the body every second.

In the meantime, a fighter jet flew 150 times longer than its body length per second when it increased at full speed. The shuttle spacecraft flew 207 times the distance of the body as they returned to the earth. During the dive, hummingbirds suffer a force 10 times greater than the Earth's gravitational pull. Even the most seasoned fighter jet pilots have to vomit when bearing the same magnitude.

Before the study was published, the record of speed in the animal world belongs to the cut bird. These birds fly at full speed as they chase their prey and dive down to attack.