THE DIARY OF A GEEK IN OXFORDSHIRE


Solving the World's problems with common sense and a flamethrower.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Altogether Too Much Effort?


So apparently, hummingbirds can fly faster than jets, and it's all to impress the ladies.

Christopher Clark from the University of California Berkeley filmed the courtship dives of male Anna's hummingbirds on cameras able to capture 500 frames per second.

Their top speed, he said, was "greater than [that] of a fighter jet with its afterburners on, or the space shuttle during atmospheric re-entry".

All seems a bit over-the-top to me, really.

Surely having a tongue that's several times longer than their body is all the attraction they need?

2 comments:

Infidel753 said...

No limit to what a bloke will do to impress a bird.

nbc said...

The important bit of that linked page is this:

When measured relative to the length of their bodies

And there was me thinking the flying rat could break the sound barrier.