Burst muscle performance predicts the speed, acceleration, and turning performance of Anna's hummingbirds

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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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Paolo S Segre

Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Roslyn Dakin

Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Victor B Zordan

Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Michael H Dickinson

Biology and Bioengineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Andrew D Straw

Biology and Bioengineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Douglas L Altshuler

Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

For correspondence
doug@zoology.ubc.ca

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All procedures were conducted under approval of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at the University of California, Riverside and the Animal Care Committee at the University of British Columbia.

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This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.