ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2014
Into turbulent air: size-dependent effects of von Kármán vortex streets on hummingbird flight kinematics and energetics.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 67 citations in OpenAlex.
- A wind-tunnel gust generator for soaring birds and small UAVs.The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Article
- Flamingos use their L-shaped beak and morphing feet to induce vortical traps for prey capture.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Stability and Controller Research of Double-Wing FMAV System Based on Controllable Tail.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Turbulence causes kinematic and behavioural adjustments in a flapping flier.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2024Article
- A method for continuous study of soaring and windhovering birds.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Natural barriers: waterfall transit by small flying animals.Royal Society open science · 2020Article
- How lovebirds maneuver through lateral gusts with minimal visual information.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2019Article
- Article
- Living in a trash can: turbulent convective flows impairJournal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2018Article
- Adaptive control of turbulence intensity is accelerated by frugal flow sampling.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2017Article
- Limitations of rotational manoeuvrability in insects and hummingbirds: evaluating the effects of neuro-biomechanical delays and muscle mechanical power.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2017Article
- A new low-turbulence wind tunnel for animal and small vehicle flight experiments.Royal Society open science · 2017Article
- Foraging in an unsteady world: bumblebee flight performance in field-realistic turbulence.Interface focus · 2017Article
- Bumblebees minimize control challenges by combining active and passive modes in unsteady winds.Scientific reports · 2016Article
- Moving in a moving medium: new perspectives on flight.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Article
- Biomechanics and biomimetics in insect-inspired flight systems.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Review
- Into rude air: hummingbird flight performance in variable aerial environments.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Review
- Aerodynamics, sensing and control of insect-scale flapping-wing flight.Proceedings. Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences · 2016Review
- Nectar vs. pollen loading affects the tradeoff between flight stability and maneuverability in bumblebees.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Animal fliers frequently move through a variety of perturbed flows during their daily aerial routines. However, the extent to which these perturbations influence flight control and energetic expenditure is essentially unknown. Here, we evaluate the kinematic and metabolic consequences of flight within variably sized vortex shedding flows using five Anna's hummingbirds feeding from an artificial flower in steady control flow and within vortex wakes produced behind vertical cylinders. Tests were conducted at three horizontal airspeeds (3, 6 and 9 m s(-1)) and using three different wake-generating cylinders (with diameters equal to 38, 77 and 173% of birds' wing length). Only minimal effects on wing and body kinematics were demonstrated for flight behind the smallest cylinder, whereas flight behind the medium-sized cylinder resulted in significant increases in the variances of wingbeat frequency, and variances of body orientation, especially at higher airspeeds. Metabolic rate was, however, unchanged relative to that of unperturbed flight. Hummingbirds flying within the vortex street behind the largest cylinder exhibited highest increases in variances of wingbeat frequency, and of body roll, pitch and yaw amplitudes at all measured airspeeds. Impressively, metabolic rate under this last condition increased by up to 25% compared with control flights. Cylinder wakes sufficiently large to interact with both wings can thus strongly affect stability in flight, eliciting compensatory kinematic changes with a consequent increase in flight metabolic costs. Our findings suggest that vortical flows frequently encountered by aerial taxa in diverse environments may impose substantial energetic costs.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.