Footage taken with high-speed cameras has revealed how hummingbirds' tiny wings fold and flex to keep them in the air. Masateru Maeda, a doctoral student at Chiba University in Japan, captured the footage as part of a study aiming to build artificial wings inspired by hummingbirds. The researchers found that the birds' primary feathers, the main flight feathers along the outer edges of the wings, slide as they flap. This changes the shape and size of the wing, precisely controlling the lift produced by the wings. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The research was presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Experimental Biology in Valencia, Spain. Hummingbirds Hummingbirds are birds that make up the Trochilidae family. They are among the smallest birds, most species measuring between 7.5 and 13 cm (3-5 inches). In fact, the smallest extant bird species is a hummingbird, the 5cm bee hummingbird. They hover in mid-air by rapidly flapping their wings 12-80 times per second (depending on the species). They are known as hummingbirds because of the buzz created by the flapping of their wings, which sometimes resembles that of bees or other insects. To conserve energy while sleeping or when food is scarce, they have the ability to enter a hibernation-like state (torpor) in which their metabolic rate is slowed to 1/15 of its normal rate. As nights get colder, your body temperature can drop significantly and therefore slow your heart and breathing rate, thus burning much less energy during the night. As the day warms up, the hummingbirds' body temperature will rise again and they will resume their normal activity. They can fly at speeds exceeding 15 m/s (54 km/h; 34 mph); they are also the only group of birds with the ability to fly backwards. Individuals of some hummingbird species weigh less than a cent. Aerodynamics of Flight Hummingbird flight has been intensively studied aerodynamically using wind tunnels and high-speed video cameras. Writing in Nature, biomechanist Douglas Warrick and colleagues studied the rufous hummingbird, Selasphorus rufus, in a wind tunnel using particle image velocimetry techniques and studied the lift generated during the up-and-down stroke of the 'bird. They concluded that their subjects produced 75% of their weight support during the descent phase and 25% during the ascent phase. Many previous studies had assumed (implicitly or explicitly) that lift was generated equally during the two phases of the wingbeat cycle, as is the case for similarly sized insects. This finding shows that the hovering of hummingbirds is similar to, but distinct from, that of hovering insects such as hawk moths. The wing beat of the giant hummingbird is only 12 beats per second, the wings of medium-sized hummingbirds beat about 20-20 per second. 30 beats per second and the smallest can reach 100 beats per second during courtship displays. A slow-motion video showed how the hummingbirds deal with the water while flying. To remove water from their head, they shake their head and body, similar to a dog shaking itself to shed water. Wing Structure and Colors Many species of hummingbirds have brilliant plumage with exotic coloring. In many species, the coloration does not arise from pigmentation of the feather structure, but from prismatic cells within the upper layers of the feathers. When light hits these cells, it is split into wavelengths that are reflected.