Meeting Abstract

10.5  Tuesday, Jan. 4  Mechanics of feather-generated courtship display sounds of some “bee” hummingbirds CLARK, Christopher J*; ELIAS, Damian; FEO, Teresa; PRUM, Richard; Yale University; UC Berkeley; Yale University; Yale University christopher.clark@yale.edu

In addition to vocalizations, birds produce communicative sounds using non-vocal mechanisms such as with the wings or tail. The ‘bee’ hummingbirds exhibits high diversity of this mechanism of sound production. We tested wing and tail-feathers from a range of hummingbirds in a wind tunnel. Sounds were recorded with a microphone; feather vibrations were measured with a Doppler Laser Vibrometer. Individual feathers exhibit multiple resonant modes of flutter that are a function of their size, shape, stiffness, orientation, and speed of airflow. The sounds that are produced are diverse. The mechanism of sound production is not a whistle; we term it ‘resonant flutter’. All feathers have the capacity to flutter and produce sound, which appears to explain why this mechanism of communication has evolved so many times within birds.