A perching Anna's hummingbird (© Matthew Shain 2014) Ornithology Zoology 

How to Disrupt a Hummingbird’s Hover

A hummingbird’s ability to hover in place can be easily disrupted by tricking the bird’s brain. Our brains can be tricked in a similar way. Watching a hummingbird hover and maneuver can be mesmerizing. Hovering in place, however, isn’t as easy as it might appear, according to new research from University of British Columbia (UBC). UBC has found that a hovering hummingbird needs a completely stationary visual field. Zoologists Benjamin Goller and Douglas Altshuler discovered this quirk in the tiny bird’s hovering skills by offering them sugar water from a…

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