Hummingbird Beeps With Its Feathers!

I just thought this was such a cute story! Members of the Wee Bird Society!


All for the Girl
During the mating season, male Anna's hummingbirds dive from heights of 100 feet or more and then spread their tapered, narrow-tipped outer tail feathers at the swoop's nadir. In that instant, the feathers act like a clarinet reed, with the wind "playing" the single note
Hummingbird Beeps With Its Feathers
Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News
Jan. 30, 2008 -- Given their tiny anatomy, very small birds would only seem to produce quiet sounds, but a notable exception is the male Anna's hummingbird, which researchers have just determined produces a loud chirp with its unusually shaped tail feathers.
The noises fill the western U.S. skies during the mating season when males of this common species dive from heights of 100 feet or more and then spread their tapered, narrow-tipped outer tail feathers at the swoop's nadir. In that instant, the feathers act like a clarinet reed, with the wind "playing" the single note.
"The sound that the males make at the bottom of their display dive is brief and loud with a frequency of around 4 kilohertz, which is roughly four octaves above middle C, or the highest key on a piano, and has been described as a beep, chirp or whistle by various people," co-author Teresa Feo told Discovery News.
Feo, a researcher at the University of California at Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, and colleague Christopher Clark further describe the sound, and their findings, in a paper published in this week's online version of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
The study represents the first time that this feather-vibrating sound mechanism in birds has been documented. Other birds, however, such as sparrow-sized manakins, are known to snap or clap their wings or to rub their feathers together to produce noise.

Read the whole news story here! :)


baby male Anna's Hummingbird
Originally uploaded by capt video.

This little baby will learn all those ways one day and start a family of his own! :)