ArticleeLife2015
Burst muscle performance predicts the speed, acceleration, and turning performance of Anna's hummingbirds.
Article in eLife, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of wingbeat kinematics and muscle size on maximum flight speed in hummingbirds.The Journal of experimental biology · 2026Article
- Hummingbirds rapidly respond to the removal of visible light and control a sequence of rate-commanded escape manoeuvres in milliseconds.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- The spatiotemporal richness of hummingbird wing deformations.The Journal of experimental biology · 2024Article
- Hummingbirds use wing inertial effects to improve manoeuvrability.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2023Article
- Intersexual social dominance mimicry drives female hummingbird polymorphism.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Scaling of maneuvering performance in baleen whales: larger whales outperform expectations.The Journal of experimental biology · 2022Article
- Genetic relatedness and morphology as drivers of interspecific dominance hierarchy in hummingbirds.PeerJ · 2022Article
- The likely effects of thermal climate change on vertebrate skeletal muscle mechanics with possible consequences for animal movement and behaviour.Conservation physiology · 2019Review
- The Orientation of Visual Space from the Perspective of Hummingbirds.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2018Article
- The biomechanical origin of extreme wing allometry in hummingbirds.Nature communications · 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
- Wingbeat kinematics and energetics during weightlifting in hovering hummingbirds across an elevational gradient.Journal of comparative physiology. B, Biochemical, systemic, and environmental physiology · 2017Article
- Into rude air: hummingbird flight performance in variable aerial environments.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Review
- Evolution of avian flight: muscles and constraints on performance.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2016Review
- Hummingbirds control turning velocity using body orientation and turning radius using asymmetrical wingbeat kinematics.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2016Article
- Burst muscle performance predicts the speed, acceleration, and turning performance of Anna's hummingbirds.eLife · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Despite recent advances in the study of animal flight, the biomechanical determinants of maneuverability are poorly understood. It is thought that maneuverability may be influenced by intrinsic body mass and wing morphology, and by physiological muscle capacity, but this hypothesis has not yet been evaluated because it requires tracking a large number of free flight maneuvers from known individuals. We used an automated tracking system to record flight sequences from 20 Anna's hummingbirds flying solo and in competition in a large chamber. We found that burst muscle capacity predicted most performance metrics. Hummingbirds with higher burst capacity flew with faster velocities, accelerations, and rotations, and they used more demanding complex turns. In contrast, body mass did not predict variation in maneuvering performance, and wing morphology predicted only the use of arcing turns and high centripetal accelerations. Collectively, our results indicate that burst muscle capacity is a key predictor of maneuverability.
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Registered trials
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.