(Gentle music plays) Hummingbirds are great.
They're beautiful,
they're fast and when they hover,
it almost seems like magic.
But how do they do when the wind gets gusty?
That's what Australian
and American scientists wanted to find out
when they put the four Ruby-throated
Hummingbirds in a wind tunnel.
And the answer is,
they just do great.
The birds did just fine in a steady wind, no surprise there.
They also did great with the wind speed
varying by as much as 15%.
Just to compare,
small drones can only handle 7%.
One way the birds cope
is that they change the angle and action
of each wing independently,
in the space of a wing beat.
Those wings are beating 40 times per second.
And constant adjustment of the tail
is very important,
both in its position
and in how much it was fanned out.
The next step the researchers have in mind,
is to try to help
the drones catch up, by giving them tails.
(Music plays, increasing in volume)