Swifts and starlings often make their nests behind waterfalls. To explore how these birds traverse their watery curtain, researchers observed hummingbirds, a smaller sister species, flying through an artificial waterfall. Keep reading
Tag: flapping flight
Hummingbird Flight in Slow Motion
Hummingbirds are impressive, acrobatic flyers. Their figure-8 wing stroke pattern produces about 70% of their lift on the downstroke, and the remainder during the backward upstroke. But their tails and Keep reading
Mimicking Insect Flight
There’s an oft-repeated tale that science cannot explain how a bumblebee flies. And while that may have been true 80 years ago, when engineers assumed they could apply their knowledge Keep reading
How Did Pterosaurs Fly?
One of my favorite aspects of fluid dynamics is how well it pairs with so many other fields, from mathematics and space exploration to biology, medicine, and even paleontology. That Keep reading
“Ornitographies”
If birds left trails in the sky, what would they look like? This is the question that haunted photographer Xavi Bou and inspired him to create his “Ornitographies” series. Using video of Keep reading
Surfing Honeybees
Honeybees have superpowers when it comes to their aerodynamics and impressive pollen-carrying, but their talents don’t end in the air. A new study confirms that honeybees can surf. Wet bees Keep reading
If You Teach a Goose to Fly
Scientists do all manner of odd things in the name of science. To teach bar-headed geese – birds capable of flying at the altitude of Everest – to fly in Keep reading
The Impressive Take-Off of Pigeons
One reason that peregrine falcons are such amazing fliers is that their prey, pigeons, are no slouches in flight, either. Able to take off vertically and accelerate to 100 kph in two Keep reading
Bats in Ground Effect
As pilots can tell you, flying near the ground (or an open expanse of water) gives one an aerodynamic boost. Essentially, the surface acts like a mirror, reflecting and dissipating Keep reading
Underwater Snakes, Gusty Flying, and Microswimmers
If you like your fluid dynamics with a healthy dose of biology, this video’s for you! Learn about the hydrodynamics of snake strikes, how birds fly in gusty crosswinds, and Keep reading