3D Model Reveals How Hummingbirds Zip, Zoom and Fly (VIDEO)

How do hummingbirds manage to zip through the air, hover in place and perform acrobatic aerial feats? That's a good question and now, scientists may have their answer. With the use of 3D aerodynamic simulations, researchers have discovered the hummingbird flight is more similar to that of insects than to other birds'.

For some time, scientists have been aware of the similarities between hummingbird and insect flight. However, some researchers believed that hummingbird's wings had aerodynamic properties similar to that of helicopter blades. It's only now, though, that researchers have discovered that hummingbirds use unsteady airflow mechanisms, producing invisible vortices of air that produce the lift that they need to hover and flit from flower to flower.

The new model reveals that as a hummingbird pulls its wings forward and down, tiny vortexes form over the leading and trailing edges of its wings and then merge into a single, large vortex. This forms a low-pressure area that provides lift. The birds enhance the amount of lift that they can produce by pitching up their wings, which means rotating them along the long axis, as they flap.

What's interesting is that large birds generate almost all of their lift on the downstroke. They pull in their wings toward their bodies to reduce the amount of negative lift that they produce while fapping upward.

That's not all the hummingbirds can do. They also generate lift on the upstroke by inverting their wings. As the leading edge begins moving backwards, the wing beneath it rotates around so the top of the wing becomes the bottom and the bottom becomes the top. This, in particular, is the same way that flying insects stir up the air as they move.

The findings reveal a bit more about hummingbirds and how they manage their particular aerial feats.

The findings are published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.

Want to learn more? Check out the video below, courtesy of YouTube.