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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Field Flight Dynamics of Hummingbirds
during Territory Encroachment and Defense
Katherine M. Sholtis, Ryan M. Shelton, Tyson L. Hedrick*
Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States
of America
*thedrick@bio.unc.edu
Abstract
Hummingbirds are known to defend food resources such as nectar sources from en-
croachment by competitors (including conspecifics). These competitive intraspecific inter-
actions provide an opportunity to quantify the biomechanics of hummingbird flight
performance during ecologically relevant natural behavior. We recorded the three-
dimensional flight trajectories of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds defending, being chased
from and freely departing from a feeder. These trajectories allowed us to compare natural
flight performance to earlier laboratory measurements of maximum flight speed, aerody-
namic force generation and power estimates. During field observation, hummingbirds
rarely approached the maximal flight speeds previously reported from wind tunnel tests
and never did so during level flight. However, the accelerations and rates of change in ki-
netic and potential energy we recorded indicate that these hummingbirds likely operated
near the maximum of their flight force and metabolic power capabilities during these com-
petitive interactions. Furthermore, although birds departing from the feeder while chased
did so faster than freely-departing birds, these speed gains were accomplished by modu-
lating kinetic and potential energy gains (or losses) rather than increasing overall power
output, essentially trading altitude for speed during their evasive maneuver. Finally, the
trajectories of defending birds were directed toward the position of the encroaching bird
rather than the feeder.
Introduction
The flight capabilities of animals have long interested researchers, leading to an extensive liter-
ature on the aerodynamics and flight capabilities of birds, bats and insects examined in a di-
verse array of laboratory experiments. For example, wind tunnel experiments have measured
flapping kinematics [1,2], cost of transport and power requirements for flight [3–5] and quan-
tified flow structures over the wing [6] and in the wake [7,8]. Maneuvering course experi-
ments [9–11] have revealed some of the turning capabilities of vertebrates engaged in low
speed flight. In contrast, studies of animal flight capabilities in natural environments are far
PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0125659 June 3, 2015 1/20
OPEN ACCESS
Citation: Sholtis KM, Shelton RM, Hedrick TL (2015)
Field Flight Dynamics of Hummingbirds during
Territory Encroachment and Defense. PLoS ONE
10(6): e0125659. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0125659
Academic Editor: David Carrier, University of Utah,
UNITED STATES
Received: October 2, 2014
Accepted: March 17, 2015
Published: June 3, 2015
Copyright: © 2015 Sholtis et al. This is an open
access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any
medium, provided the original author and source are
credited.
Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are
within the paper and its Supporting Information files.
Funding: This work was funded by Office of Naval
Research (http://www.onr.navy.mil) MURI
N000141010952 to TLH and 8 others and by National
Science Foundation (http://www.nsf.gov/) IOS-
1253276 to TLH. The funders had no role in study
design, data collection and analysis, decision to
publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared
that no competing interests exist.
less common because of difficulties related to repeatability and of reliably obtaining precise,
quantitative kinematic data at high temporal resolution in the field. Thus, although much is
known about steady, level flight in controlled but highly artificial wind tunnel environments, it
is less certain how these capabilities relate to natural flight behavior, especially at timescales in
which turning, acceleration and deceleration occur and how they are used in day-to-day eco-
logical contexts. However, continual advances in camera, inertial sensing and data-logging
technologies now allow quantification of animal flight performance in the field at timescales of
less than a tenth of a second, using high speed videography with multiple, calibrated cameras
[12–14] or on-board inertial sensing and data recording[15] for larger animals able to easily
lift the ~20 gram mass of current generation systems [16]. These new capabilities allow investi-
gation into how animals deploy their flight capabilities during typical foraging, display and
commuting behaviors.
Hummingbirds, whose small size and sustained ability to hover provide substantial physio-
logical and biomechanical challenges that have been the subject of much laboratory investiga-
tion [17–20], are an excellent study system in which to examine how aerial maneuvering
abilities and locomotor performance measured in the laboratory relate to field behaviors. We
used high-speed videography to quantify the three-dimensional (3D) flight trajectories of free,
wild hummingbirds around a stationary, outdoor feeder. This provided repeatable, quantitative
observation of position as birds approached a feeder and departed from it either alone or while
being pursued by another hummingbird. From recorded trajectories, we also computed veloci-
ty, acceleration, mass-specific kinetic and gravitational potential energy, and mass-specific ki-
nematic (i.e. climb) power.
These data were then used to test the following hypotheses on how hummingbirds use
their flight capabilities in different behaviors. First, we expected that birds departing from
the feeder while being chased would exhibit greater accelerations, flight speeds and changes
in kinetic and potential energy than birds departing alone. Producing larger flight forces as-
sociated with acceleration and higher speed is aerodynamically costly, and birds are only ex-
pected to meet these costs when necessary. Second, the measured mass-specific kinematic
power output (i.e. rates of change in kinetic and potential energy) should be substantially
below laboratory measurements of aerodynamic power requirements in hummingbirds
since our field measurements do not include aerodynamic costs such as profile, parasite and
induced power which can only be measured in lab. Furthermore, we do not expect birds to
employ their maximal flight capabilities during typical behaviors such as those measured
here, following the results of intraspecific contests in Cliff Swallows [13]. For similar reasons,
the non-dimensional forces associated with acceleration in the field should be less than the
maximum lift forces recorded from hummingbirds in laboratory tests. Finally, we hypothe-
size that the highest flight speeds will be found in the birds defending the feeder because they
typically dive toward their target, using potential and muscle energy for locomotion, but that
these will not exceed flight speeds recorded in hummingbird mating displays [12]wherea
maximal display of flight capabilities may be particularly beneficial and stored potential en-
ergy is also used.
In addition to biomechanical measures, our results also provide some information on the
guidance and control used by the birds during these intraspecific interactions. Specifically, the
pursuing bird defending the feeder might either aim for the food resource or for the encroach-
ing bird. We hypothesize that the former is the preferred strategy because the food resource is
stationary, simplifying the flight control and targeting requirements for the defending bird and
might also be more readily defended by flying directly to it.
Field Flight Dynamics of Hummingbirds
PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0125659 June 3, 2015 2/20
Materials and Methods
Ethics Statement
The hummingbird observation protocol was approved by the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, no government permits were re-
quired for field observation of the species studied here.
Hummingbird Recordings
Using multiple camera high-speed videography, we recorded freely-behaving wild Ruby-
throated Hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris, Linnaeus, 1758) during competitive interac-
tions on private land in Orange County, North Carolina, USA (36° 0’29”N, 79° 5’51”W) with
the permission of the landholder. The arena consisted of a wood deck with a single humming-
bird feeder filled with clear 25% sugar water, located adjacent to a wooded area and bordered
by a private residence (Fig 1). Video recording allowed sexing hummingbirds based on plum-
age in most cases. The hummingbird observation protocol was approved by the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, no government
permits were required.
Fig 1. Video recording setup and example flight trajectories. Panels A-C show images from each of the three cameras in a recording setup; panel D
shows a reconstruction of the 3D scene including the cameras, their positioning, their individual2D images of the scene, the trajectory of the two
hummingbirds in the 2D images as well as the 3D scene and triangulation rays identifying the 3D location of one bird at one instant from the 2D image
information. The defending bird information is magenta while the chased bird is cyan; photographs (not to scale) of a defending and chased bird are included
to show typical flight posture at the start of the interaction. Photo credit: Ellis Driver.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0125659.g001
Field Flight Dynamics of Hummingbirds
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We recorded on 14 separate mornings in the months of June, July, and August 2013 from
approximately 8a.m. to noon at this location. The location of the cameras changed over the
first two weeks to determine the best vantage points. Twenty-nine of the 51 videos analyzed
had a camera configuration similar to that seen in Fig 1. Eighty-three separate videos were re-
corded, including both two-bird competitive interactions and single-bird arrivals and depar-
tures from the feeder. Thirty-three two-bird competitive interactions included the full two-bird
interaction including pursuit by the defending bird and departure of the encroaching bird and
were thus suitable for analysis. In these trials, we have designated the birds as either the en-
croaching, chased bird or the defending, chasing bird. Eighteen one-bird trials began with the
bird hovering near the feeder then departing without provocation and were thus suitable for
comparison with the chased bird from the two-bird interaction recordings. As previously re-
ported for Ruby-throated Hummingbird competitive interactions [21], most defending and
freely-departing birds were male while most chased birds were female. Respective counts of
(male, female, undetermined) for the three behaviors were (31,2,0), (11,2,5), and (5,28,0). Note
that the male-female distribution of defending and chased birds may reflect a behavioral case
where the chase is the initial portion of a mating display rather than aggressive defense of a re-
source, though we did not observe any subsequent portions of the typical mating display se-
quence [22].
We used three synchronized high-speed cameras (N5r, Integrated Design Tools, Inc., Tal-
lahassee, Florida, USA) recording 2336 x 1728 pixel images, generally at a 300 Hz frame rate
for ~1.6 seconds. To provide longer observation durations, five trials were recorded at 200
Hz (~2.4 seconds of video) and one at 100 Hz (4.75 seconds of video). On these three cam-
eras we used one 28mm and two 20mm Nikon lenses (AF NIKKOR 20 mm f/2.8D and AF
NIKKOR 24 mm f/2.8 AIS, Nikon Inc., Melville,NY,USA).Inordertocollect3Dkinematic
data, we used a structure-from-motion camera calibration routine [23]. Calibrations were
obtained for each new setup at the start and end of each day's filming. Calibration sequences
used a 1m wand moved within the field of view of all three cameras, with 20 hand-digitized
wand points used in each calibration. The coordinate system z- axis was aligned to gravity
using an additional recording of a rock thrown in the scene. The origin and the x- and y-axes
were aligned to local environmental features ensuring a consistent reference frame for
all trials.
To measure the wind, we placed a digital anemometer (HHF142, OMEGA Engineering, Inc,
Stamford, Connecticut, USA) on the ground near the camera locations. To allow rotation
about the vertical axis, the anemometer was mounted on a gimbal. A custom data logger re-
corded wind velocity at 1 Hz intervals as well as recording compass direction, time, and loca-
tion. Only trials with a recorded wind speed of less than 1.5 m s
-1
were analyzed; we did not
include wind velocity in our kinematic analysis since it likely varied in magnitude and direction
through the volume traversed by the birds.
Video Analysis
After recording, the position of the birds in each video was digitized either by hand or using
specially-written autotracker routines implemented using a combination of Python, OpenCV
and MATLAB (The Mathworks, Natick, MA). Hand-digitizing via the MATLAB package
DLTdv5 [24] was used initially and in cases where the autotracker was unable to recognize the
birds for a short amount of time. Hand-digitizing was a slow task, averaging about two hours
per 475 video frames. As the number of organisms, number of cameras, and frame rate in-
crease, manual digitizing becomes a major challenge. Thus, the autotracker was developed to
allow timely analysis of a larger number of recordings.
Field Flight Dynamics of Hummingbirds
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The autotracker functioned as follows: the scene background of each camera view was sub-
tracted using a running average background subtractor configured to remove portions of the
image that changed slowly (time scale longer than about 20 frames). Potential hummingbirds
were then detected in each camera view using a Haar cascade [25] trained using data from the
hand-digitized trials. Detections from all three cameras were then combined into specific 3D
points along tracks by determining which pairwise and three-wise combinations of bounding
box centroids produced three-dimensional positions with acceptably small stereo reconstruc-
tion errors (26 pixels rmse). This eliminated false detections such as those due to moving fo-
liage and other sources of noise. Finally, all autodetected tracks were manually reviewed in
order to remove obvious errors, and to merge tracks if the autotracker momentarily lost contact
with the bird. The median rmse of all trials was 1.80 pixels, which corresponded to a median
spatial 95% confidence interval volume of 5.75x10
-7
m
3
. The effective recording volume was
347 m
3
, as measured by the minimum volume bounding box containing all hummingbird tra-
jectory data points.
To remove digitization noise, the raw 3D position data were processed with a quintic
smoothing spline implemented via the spaps function in MATLAB (The Mathworks, Natick,
MA). For each data point, the error variance was extracted from the 3D reconstruction uncer-
tainty and we iteratively increased the spline error tolerances, weighted by the error variances,
to effect a low pass filter at 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0 Hz. Varying the low pass filter frequency did not af-
fect any of our conclusions and produced only small variations in the data. Results presented
here are from the 3.0 Hz low pass filter unless otherwise noted. We estimated derivatives of po-
sition with respect to time from the quintic spline polynomial. Velocity (v) and acceleration (a)
were found by taking the first and second derivatives, respectively. We calculated the mass-
specific kinetic (KE) and gravitational potential energy (PE) of the hummingbirds at any given
time by:
KE
m¼1
2jvj2ð1Þ
PE
m¼gh ð2Þ
where mis body mass, gis gravitational acceleration and his elevation. We also computed
mass-specific kinematic (P
k
) (i.e. climb) power as:
Pk
m¼D1
2jvj2þgh
Dtð3Þ
where tis time. In addition to our trajectories and mass-specific power estimates, two measures
of maneuverability were computed: the angular velocity of the trajectory, i.e. the rate of change
in direction of the trajectory and the centripetal force developed by the bird. Angular velocity
was computed from instantaneous radius of curvature (r) directly from vand aby
r¼jvj3
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
jvj2jaj2ðva
0Þ2
qð4Þ
where a0is the transpose of a. We then calculated angular velocity (w)by
w¼jvj
rð5Þ
Field Flight Dynamics of Hummingbirds
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Centripetal force (F) in body weights is then
F¼jvj2
gr :ð6Þ
and was adjusted to F’, the force produced by the bird only, by removing the gravitational con-
tributions to Fas described in [13]. Note that because angular velocity is undefined when flight
speed is equal to zero, we only computed this quantity when the speed of the trajectory was
greater than 1.0 m s
-1
.
Trajectory analysis
We began analysis of the individual flight trajectories by first dividing them into three groups:
trajectories from 1) freely-departing birds that approached the feeder and departed alone, 2)
birds that approached the feeder and were chased away from it by a defending bird and 3) the
defending birds. Next, members of each group were aligned to a common timebase with a start
time determined by group-specific features. For the freely-departing and chased birds, time-
base t
c
was established by setting t
c
= 0 to the instant at which the bird achieved a flight speed
of 0.4 m s
-1
during departure. Note that a flight speed of 0.0 m s
-1
was not used because not all
chased birds came to a complete stop. Two of the 33 chased birds never slowed to 0.4 m s
-1
and
these trajectories were not examined further.
Defending birds typically entered the recording volume from above at a substantial speed.
Timebase t
d
was established for these trajectories by setting t
d
= 0 to the instant at which the de-
fending bird passed through a horizontal plane approximately 0.75 meters above the feeder
and exactly 1.2 meters above the fixed rail where the feeder was mounted. This plane was cho-
sen by examination of the set of defending bird trajectories, which revealed a period of constant
slope descent which typically ended at this elevation (Fig 2). Once a common timebase was es-
tablished for each group, average trajectories for each of the three groups were constructed by
averaging the vertical and horizontal velocity and acceleration information of all the trials in
the group for each.
Finally, we examined the question of whether the defending bird flies towards the chased
bird or towards the feeder by computing the 3D angle between the trajectory of the defending
Fig 2. Defending bird trajectories and their classification. Circles indicate the starting position of the bird trajectory and diamonds its end position. Green
lines with solid markers represent defenders using the perch, which was not within the 3D reconstruction volume. The pink lines with open markers represent
other defender trajectories. A) A top-down view of the flight trajectories of the defending birds. B) A 3D view of the defendingbirds. The transparent blue plane
at Z = 1.2m represents the approximate end of the uniform descent period of defender trajectories.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0125659.g002
Field Flight Dynamics of Hummingbirds
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bird and the direction of the feeder along with the 3D angle between the trajectory and the po-
sition of the chased bird. We used a one-sample t-test of the average difference between these
3D angles during the sustained descent phase (time less than 0) described above to assess the
guidance decision of the defending bird.
Statistical analysis
Specific statistical comparisons of trajectory values among the different flight groups were
made by two-tailed, unpaired t-tests computed in MATLAB r2013b. Comparisons of defend-
ing and chased birds were by two-tailed, paired t-tests. Note that the identity of individual
birds could not be established from the video data, so our comparisons are of bird trajectories
rather than birds. A maximum of five birds were observed simultaneously in the vicinity of the
feeder, so the trajectories were likely produced by five or more individual animals but fewer
than the number of trajectories recorded, which was 18 to 33 depending on the behavior. The p
values reported in the tables use the number of trajectories in determining the degrees of free-
dom. The effect of a reduction in degrees of freedom due to multiple recordings from the same
bird can be estimated by assuming fewer degrees of freedom and examination of a table of t-
distribution critical values; a reduction to only 5 degrees of freedom in both cases leads to
roughly an order of magnitude increase in the p value.
Results in the text and tables are presented as mean ± standard deviation with a p value if a
statistical comparison is called for. In contrast, trajectory results in figures are typically pre-
sented as the mean trajectory with error bars giving the standard error. This approach was
taken because non-overlapping standard errors allow visual identification of cases likely to
prove significantly different in a t-test whereas overlapping (or non-overlapping) standard de-
viations provide no such information.
Results
Trajectory classes
Freely-departing bird trajectories were recorded from birds leaving the feeder without being
chased away. We acquired 18 videos of this class of trajectory; in 11 of these the hummingbird
was male, in two it was female, and in five videos the sex of the bird could not be identified.
These trajectories departed the feeder in a variety of directions, flying upward in 13 trials, flying
level in three trials, and flying downward in two trials.
We acquired 33 videos of two-bird competitive interactions, which capture the flight trajec-
tories of chased and defending birds. The videos start with the chased bird either approaching
the feeder (12 of 33 trials), or hovering near it. The defending bird starts above the feeder and
flies downward (in all but one trial) towards the chased bird while the chased bird is still ap-
proaching the feeder or while it is hovering nearby. The chased bird then departs from the feed-
er, flying downward in ten trials, flying level in 20 trials, and flying upward in three trials. For
the chased bird trajectories, there were five recordings where the bird was a male and 28 videos
where the bird was a female. For the defending bird trajectories, there were 31 videos where the
bird was a male and two videos where the bird was a female.
We observed that the defending birds used a specific perch more often than any other loca-
tion (16 out of 33 trials). This perch was located 6.5m above and 8.8m horizontal from the feed-
er, a total distance of 11.0m. In their initial approach to the feeder and chased bird, the
defending birds descended towards the feeder at approximately the same rate. This period of
uniform descent can be seen in Fig 2.
Field Flight Dynamics of Hummingbirds
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Flight Speed and Velocity
The feeder departure trajectories from chased birds showed a greater flight speed than those re-
corded from freely-departing birds (Fig 3,Table 1). For example, at 0.3 seconds after departure,
the mean speed of all chased bird trajectories was 3.9 ± 1.1 m s
-1
(mean ± standard deviation
here and elsewhere) while the mean speed of all freely-departing trajectories was 3.0 ± 0.8 m s
-1
(t-test, p = 0.0039). We found that defending trajectories originating at the typical perch (see
above) differed from those originating at other locations with respect to their velocity profile
(Fig 4,Table 2). Perch trajectories had greater overall flight speeds, with greater horizontal and
vertical velocities. For all defending trajectory velocity comparisons, the differences in velocity
between the two classes of defending trajectory lessened as the birds approached the feeder (Fig
4). Finally, maximum speeds recorded from defending bird trajectories were greater than those
recorded in the matching chased bird trajectory (Table 3).
Acceleration
We observed differences in acceleration between departures of chased bird trajectories and
freely-departing trajectories (Fig 5,Table 1). The chased trajectories exhibited a higher initial
acceleration during the first 0.25 seconds after departure, after which the two classes of depart-
ing birds had similar acceleration profiles. The initial accelerations were typically the largest
magnitude events in the trajectory, thus the chased bird trajectories had significantly higher
overall maximum accelerations compared to the freely-departing ones (t-test, p = 0.0025). The
overall maximum instantaneous acceleration found within a chased bird trajectory was 42.3 m
s
-2
compared to 19.6 m s
-2
for a freely-departing trajectory.
The two classes of defending bird trajectories, perch and non-perch, produced similar mag-
nitude accelerations when approaching the feeder, but perch trajectories began decelerating
earlier (Fig 6,Table 2). The maximum accelerations for non-perch and perch defending birds
were similar (Table 2) as were the deceleration magnitudes. In general, for the portion of the
Fig 3. Flight speed in departure trajectories. The red triangle markers represent the mean flight speed of
the chased bird after departing from the feeder. Error bars show the standard error (n = 31 trajectories at t
c
=
0 and n = 30 at t
c
= 0.29 seconds). The blue circle markers show the mean departure flight speed of freely-
departing hummingbirds (n = 18 trajectories). Measurements of the flight speeds of both classes of birds were
taken at different times after initial departure and a common timebase t
c
created with 0 as the instant where
the bird first reaches a speed of 0.4 m s
-1
.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0125659.g003
Field Flight Dynamics of Hummingbirds
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defending bird trajectories recorded in this study, the deceleration magnitudes are greater than
the acceleration magnitudes.
Changes in mass-specific energy state
Despite previously noted differences in acceleration profile, when comparing energy usage dur-
ing feeder departures from chased bird trajectories versus those from freely-departing cases, we
found that the two classes had similar overall mass-specific energy values (Fig 7,Table 1) al-
though these were partitioned differently among potential and kinetic energy. Thus, at 0.3 sec-
onds after departure, the mass-specific energies of the two classes of departing bird trajectory
were not statistically different (t-test, p = 0.6812), but the mass-specific potential energies were
significantly different (t-test, p<0.0001), as were the mass-specific kinetic energies (t-test,
p = 0.0046). The chased trajectories tended to trade potential energy for kinetic energy com-
pared to freely-departing cases by flying level or downward when departing from the feeder.
The freely-departing trajectories tended to fly upward, resulting in a potential energy gain but
lower flight speeds compared to chased bird trajectories.
We found that the two classes of defending bird trajectories, perch and non-perch, had simi-
lar mass-specific potential energy values (by definition in our timebase alignment), but had dif-
ferent mass-specific energy and kinetic energy values (Fig 8,Table 2). While approaching the
feeder, both classes of defending trajectory decreased in elevation at similar rates, which re-
sulted in potential energy decreasing uniformly upon descent. The perch trajectories were at
higher flight speeds and thus higher kinetic energies.
We also measured the kinematic power output of the trajectories (i.e. the mass-specific rate
of change in kinetic and potential energy). Chased and freely-departing trajectories had similar
kinematic power outputs over the 0.3 second duration after initial departure (t-test, p = 0.5050;
Table 1). The mean power output for chased birds was 20.3 ± 8.4 W kg
-1
, and the mean power
output found for non-chased birds was 18.6 ± 6.8 W kg
-1
. The respective maximum kinematic
power output found for the two classes was 39.4 W kg
-1
and 33.0 W kg
-1
.
Table 1. Departing bird trajectories.
Freely—departing bird
trajectories (n = 18)
Chased bird trajectories
(n = 31)
Statistical comparison
(unpaired t-test)
Flight speed at t
c
= 0.3s 3.0 ±0.8 (mean ±s.d.) 3.9 ±1.1 p = 0.0039
Maximum flight speed (m s
-1
) 5.4 ±1.4 6.2 ±1.3 p = 0.0629
t
ma
:t
c
at maximum average acceleration, t
c
0.3s (s)
0.17 0.08 -
Acceleration magnitude at t
ma
(m s
-2
) 9.1 ±4.8 14.6 ±5.7 p = 0.0025
Overall maximum acceleration (m s
-2
) 19.6 42.3 -
Kinetic + potential energy at t
c
= 0.3s (J kg
-1
) 35.1 ±2.1 35.2 ±3.0 p = 0.6812
Kinetic energy at t
c
= 0.3s (J kg
-1
) 4.7 ±2.6 8.3 ±4.2 p = 0.0046
Potential energy at t
c
= 0.3s (J kg
-1
) 30.4 ±1.1 27.2 ±2.3 p <0.0001
Mean kinematic power at 0 t
c
0.3s (W kg
-1
) 18.6 ±6.8 20.3 ±8.4 p = 0.5050
Maximum mean kinematic power 0 t
c
0.3s
(W kg
-1
)
33.0 39.4 -
Maximum angular velocity (degrees s
-1
) 258.8 ±107.4 334.8 ±149.2 p = 0.0627
Flight speed at maximum angular velocity (m s
-1
) 1.5 ±0.7 2.2 ±1.4 p = 0.0556
Maximum gravity-adjusted centripetal force (body
weights)
0.9 ±0.3 1.6 ±0.7 p = 0.0002
Flight speed at maximum gravity-adjusted
centripetal force (m s
-1
)
3.1 ±1.7 4.2 ±1.5 p = 0.0242
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0125659.t001
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Mean kinematic power output from the defending bird trajectories was found for the 0.2
second range prior to the end of uniform descent. Unlike the departing birds, the defending
birds’kinematic power was typically negative during this time frame, usually by decreasing
both speed and elevation. There were significant differences between the power outputs of
perch and non-perch defending bird trajectory classes (t-test, p = 0.0156; Table 2). The mean
kinematic power output for perch defender trajectories was -72.1 ± 53.8 W kg
-1
, compared to
-26.9 ± 47.7 W kg
-1
for other defender trajectories.
Fig 4. Flight speed in defending trajectories. The green cross markers show the mean flight speed of
defending birds that approached the feeder from a frequently-used perch. Error bars show the standard error
(n = 16 trajectories at t
d
= 0 and n = 15 at t
d
= 0.11 seconds). The pink diamond markers show the mean flight
speed of all other defending trajectories (n = 17 at t
d
=0,n=15att
d
= 0.09 seconds, and n = 11 at t
d
= 0.11).
The black asterisk markers show the mean flight speed of all defending birds (n = 33 at t
d
=0,n=30att
d
=
0.09, and n = 26 at t
d
= 0.20 seconds). (A) Gives the overall flight speed while (B) shows speed in the
horizontal (XY) projection of the trajectories and (C) shows vertical velocity. Note that a positive vertical
velocity is downward toward the ground and feeder. The trajectories were combined using a common t
d
where 0 is the time at which the trajectory passed through Z = -1.2 m.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0125659.g004
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PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0125659 June 3, 2015 10 / 20
Angular dynamics
Higher angular velocities in all trajectories tended to occur at lower speeds (Fig 9A). The maxi-
mum angular velocities of freely-departing and chased bird trajectories did not differ signifi-
cantly (t-test, p = 0.0627; Table 1), and neither did the flight speeds at which these maneuvers
occurred. However, differences appeared when these results were examined in terms of centrip-
etal force rather than angular velocity (Fig 9B,Table 1). The maximum centripetal forces from
freely-departing and chased trajectories differed significantly (t-test, p = 0.0002; Table 1) as did
the speeds at which the forces were produced. Defending birds were similar to chased birds in
their maximum angular velocities (Table 3), but differed in other measures of turning perfor-
mance. The largest average centripetal forces were observed in defending bird trajectories and
Table 2. Defending bird trajectories.
Trajectories beginning at the typical
perch (n = 16)
Other trajectories
(n = 17)
Statistical comparison
(unpaired t-test)
Flight speed at t
d
= 0 (m s
-1
) 9.2 ±1.5 7.7 ±1.6 p = 0.0085
Horizontal flight speed at t
d
= 0 (m s
-1
) 7.8 ±1.3 6.3 ±1.5 p = 0.0040
Vertical flight speed at t
d
= 0 (m s
-1
) 4.8 ±1.0 4.2 ±1.6 p = 0.1920
Mean of maximum flight speeds (m s
-1
) 10.1 ±0.7 8.2 ±1.7 p = 0.0003
Overall maximum flight speed (m s
-1
) 12.0 10.7 -
Mean acceleration at t
d
= -0.2 (m s
-2
) 3.8 ±3.8 3.5 ±2.9 p = 0.8110
Mean acceleration at t
d
= -0.1 (m s
-2
) -1.0 ±8.1 4.2 ±4.3 p = 0.0350
Mean of maximum accelerations (m s
-2
) 10.1 ±6.8 10.4 ±3.9 p = 0.8898
Overall maximum acceleration (m s
-2
) 30.1 17.7 -
Mean of maximum decelerations (m s
-2
) -19.5 ±9.1 -15.1 ±7.6 p = 0.1371
Overall of maximum deceleration (m s
-2
) -28.4 -26.6 -
Kinetic + potential energy at t
d
= -0.2s (J kg
-1
) 96.4 ±8.6 80.5 ±18.5 p = 0.0074
Kinetic energy at t
d
= -0.2s (J kg
-1
) 44.7 ±7.6 30.4 ±16.3 p = 0.0061
Mean kinematic power at -0.2 t
d
0s (W kg
-1
) -72.1 ±53.8 -26.9 ±47.7 p = 0.0156
Maximum mean kinematic power -0.2 t
d
0s
(W kg
-1
)
-10.9 29.9 -
Maximum angular velocity (degrees s
-1
) 342.2 ±161.1 304.1 ±124.2 p = 0.4510
Flight speed at maximum angular velocity (m s
-1
) 3.7 ±2.7 4.0 ±2.5 p = 0.7674
Maximum gravity-adjusted centripetal force (body
weights)
2.2 ±0.5 2.1 ±0.9 p = 0.7173
Flight speed at maximum gravity-adjusted
centripetal force (m s
-1
)
6.9 ±2.4 5.9 ±2.1 p = 0.2944
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0125659.t002
Table 3. Defending vs. Chased bird trajectories.
Defending bird trajectories
(n = 31)
Chased bird trajectories
(n = 31)
Statistical comparison (paired
t-test)
Mean of maximum flight speeds (m s
-1
) 9.2 ±1.6 6.3 ±1.3 p <0.0001
Maximum angular velocity (degrees s
-1
) 322.6 ±142.4 334.8 ±149.2 p = 0.7383
Flight speed at maximum angular velocity (m s
-1
) 3.9 ±2.6 2.2 ±1.4 p = 0.0006
Maximum gravity-adjusted centripetal force (body
weights)
2.1 ±0.7 1.6 ±0.7 p = 0.0051
Flight speed at maximum gravity-adjusted
centripetal force (m s
-1
)
6.2 ±2.3 4.2 ±1.5 p <0.0001
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0125659.t003
Field Flight Dynamics of Hummingbirds
PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0125659 June 3, 2015 11 / 20
Fig 5. Acceleration in departing trajectories. The red triangle markers show the mean acceleration of the
chased bird after departing the feeder (n = 31 trajectories at t
c
= 0 and n = 30 at 0.29 seconds). The blue circle
markers represent the mean acceleration after departure for freely-departing bird trajectories (n = 15). Error
bars show the standard error at each time instant. Measurements of the flight speeds of both classes of birds
were taken at different times after initial departure and a common timebase t
c
created with 0 as the instant
where the bird first reaches a speed of 0.4 m s
-1
.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0125659.g005
Fig 6. Acceleration in defending trajectories. The green cross markers show the mean acceleration of
defending bird trajectories that approached the feeder from a specific perch (n = 16 trajectories at t
d
= 0 and
n = 15 at t
d
= 0.11 seconds) while pink diamond markers show mean acceleration of all other defending bird
trajectories (n = 17 at t
d
= 0, n = 15 at 0.09 seconds, and n = 11 at 0.20 seconds). The black asterisk markers
are the mean acceleration of all defending trajectories (n = 32 at t
d
= 0, n = 30 at 0.09 seconds, and n = 26 at
0.20 seconds). Error bars show the standard error about the mean for the perch and nonperch data only.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0125659.g006
Field Flight Dynamics of Hummingbirds
PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0125659 June 3, 2015 12 / 20
the overall maximum centripetal force (3.9 body weights) was a defending bird turning at a
flight speed of 7.0 m s
-1
.
Guidance and targeting
During the rapid descent phase (see above), the mean of the time-averaged angle between the
defending bird trajectory and the feeder was 6.3 ± 4.8 degrees among trajectories while the
mean of the angle between the defending trajectory and the current position of the chased bird
was 3.1 ± 2.3 degrees. The mean of the difference between these angles was 3.2 ± 4.1 degrees,
significantly different from 0 (t-test; p = 0.0001). The significance of this result was not sensi-
tive to the elevation threshold used to identify the initial rapid descent phase.
Discussion
On the whole, our results from the free-flight trajectory kinematics of Ruby-throated Hum-
mingbirds support hypotheses of maximum speed, flight force, acceleration and kinematic
Fig 7. Kinetic and potential energy in departure trajectories. Here we show the (A) mass-specific energy,
(B) potential energy, and (C) kinetic energy of hummingbird trajectories departing from the feeder location
under different conditions. The red triangle markers show the chased bird after departing the feeder (n = 31
trajectories at t
c
= 0 and n = 30 at 0.29 seconds). The blue circle markers show trajectories from freely-
departing birds (n = 15). The starting positions of all departing trajectories were set to the same value (3m
above the ground) to provide a common point of comparison for changes in energy.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0125659.g007
Field Flight Dynamics of Hummingbirds
PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0125659 June 3, 2015 13 / 20
power derived from prior laboratory studies. In two cases, maximum flight force and kinematic
power, the trajectories reveal that hummingbirds reach their laboratory maxima during typical
field behavior, suggesting that these are more relevant performance measures for natural be-
havior than maximum level flight speed, which was not reached. We also found that humming-
birds vary how they partition gains in speed and elevation in chased versus freely-departing
flights but do not vary their overall kinematic power output. This further supports power as a
limiting factor in these interactions, as is suggested by a broader assessment of competitive suc-
cess in a range of hummingbird species [26].
Fig 8. Kinetic and potential energy in defending trajectories. Here we show the (A) mass-specific energy,
(B) potential energy, and (C) kinetic energy of trajectories from hummingbirds defending the feeder. The
green cross markers show data from defending birds that approached the feeder from a specific perch (n = 16
trajectories at t
d
= 0 and n = 15 at -0.11 seconds). The pink diamond markers show all other defending
trajectories (n = 17 at t
d
= 0, n = 15 at -0.09 to -0.20 seconds, and n = 11 at -0.20 seconds). The black asterisk
marker represents all defending trajectories (n = 31 at time zero, n = 30 at -0.09 to -0.20 seconds, and n = 26
at -0.20 seconds). Error bars show the standard error about the mean for perch and nonperch trajectories.
Unlike our treatment of departing bird potential energy, in (B) the starting positions of the birds were not set to
a common identical initial value but are nevertheless quite similar.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0125659.g008
Field Flight Dynamics of Hummingbirds
PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0125659 June 3, 2015 14 / 20
Kinematics of chased versus non-chased departures
We hypothesized that bird trajectories departing from the feeder while being chased should ex-
hibit greater accelerations, flight speeds, and changes in kinetic and potential energy than those
departing alone because high flight speeds and accelerations are aerodynamically costly, gener-
ating additional drag or elevating induced power requirements, and offer little apparent benefit
for freely-departing birds. The first two of these hypotheses were supported by the data while
the third, greater kinematic power expenditure, was not.
Despite differences in speed and acceleration (Figs 3,5and Table 1), chased birds and free-
ly-departing bird trajectories both used approximately the same amount of energy during de-
parture (Fig 7A), but partitioned kinetic and potential components differently (Fig 7B and 7C).
The chased trajectories appear to maximize kinetic energy over potential energy, while freely-
departing trajectories balance both. Thus, the chased birds appear to exhibit a strategy for rap-
idly achieving an escape speed without increasing their overall energy expenditure compared
to a free-departure trajectory.
Kinetic power output and flight force
Our measures of kinematic power output further support the energetic equivalence of freely-
departing and chased bird trajectories, with both classes having statistically identical average
kinematic power output. Our whole-bird mass-specific power results also provide some addi-
tional data for comparison to other measures of power output based on metabolic and aerody-
namic measurements from other studies. These studies quantify many costs beyond the
resultant change in kinematic and potential energy state measured here such as the cost of pro-
ducing lift, cost of drag and efficiency of the flight muscle. Thus, our whole-body power
Fig 9. Turning rates and forces from all trajectories. Panel (A) shows the maximum rate of change in heading (i.e. angular velocity) and (B) the maximum
centripetal force versus flight speed from the trajectories of hummingbirds defending the feeder and from those departing the feeder. The black asterisks are
the defending birds (n = 33), red triangles are the departures of chased birds (n = 33) and the blue circles are freely-departing birds (n = 18). In both cases we
identified the time in the trajectory where the maximum rate of change in flight direction (A) or maximum centripetal force (B) occurred and plotted the data
against the speed at that instant. Computations in both cases were also limited to data points with speed >1ms
-1
.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0125659.g009
Field Flight Dynamics of Hummingbirds
PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0125659 June 3, 2015 15 / 20
measurements should be much less than these other common measures of muscle or aerody-
namic power. However, our kinematic power measures can help delineate what fraction of
metabolic power expenditure could be due to other factors. For example, the whole-body meta-
bolic power requirements of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds range from ~258 to 322 W kg
-1
when flying in variable density gas mixtures [27] whereas the aerodynamic power requirement
for hovering flight in the same species was reported as 55 W kg
-1
in a recent computational
fluid dynamics (CFD) study [28]. Our recordings revealed an average kinematic power output
of ~19 W kg
-1
for birds departing from the feeder location with a maximum instantaneous
power of ~40 W kg
-1
, similar to the ~44 W kg
-1
kinematic power for reported for male Anna’s
hummingbirds engaged in courtship displays [29]. When compared with the metabolic and
aerodynamic measurements noted above, these results support our expectation that kinematic
power observations should be much less than metabolic power. However, the difference be-
tween our average and peak kinematic power measurements is ~20 W kg
-1
, similar to the dif-
ference between peak and hovering metabolic power measurements given the 20% muscle
efficiency implied by the CFD result in conjunction with hovering metabolic data. Thus, hum-
mingbirds appear to regularly burst to near their maximum sustainable power during typical
flight behavior.
Kinematic power was quantified for many bird species during vertical escape flights follow-
ing capture [30]; the mean hummingbird feeder-departure power of ~19 W kg
-1
is similar to
that extrapolated from the linear regression of all vertical escape species mean responses. How-
ever, the maximum reported hummingbird value is substantially less than the extrapolated
maximum vertical escape value; this might reflect the absence of anaerobic muscle in hum-
mingbirds or differences in kinematic data analysis methods.
A second case where laboratory measurements of flight performance can be compared to
our free-flight data lies in flight force as quantified by load lifting tests in lab and acceleration
in the field. Hovering Ruby-throated Hummingbirds can support an additional load of approx-
imately one body weight [31], implying a flight force surplus sufficient to accelerate an un-
loaded bird at ~10 m s
-2
horizontally or ~20 m s
-2
if foregoing weight support. Furthermore,
wild-caught Red-billed Streamertail hummingbirds achieved linear accelerations of up to ~20
ms
-2
during startle escapes from a feeder [32]. In contrast, the freely-departing trajectories in
our field recordings reveal a rather constant linear acceleration of ~8 m s
-2
, beginning when
flight speed is still less than 1 m s
-1
. Chased birds achieved similar accelerations at this speed,
but also continued to increase speed while losing elevation. These results suggest that the hum-
mingbirds used most (~80%) of their available maximum flight force when departing from the
feeder, even when not chased but did not forego weight support.
Centripetal forces also provide another measure of flight force, but since maneuvering forces
were greatest at faster flight speeds in the bird trajectories recorded here and aerodynamic
forces theoretically scale proportional to the square of velocity, they cannot be compared to
hovering load tests or initial departure accelerations. However, the maximum centripetal forces
recorded here of 3.9 body weights is substantially less than the maximum reported in record-
ings of free flight in Cliff Swallows (7.8 body weights) [13] and also from the courtship dive ma-
neuvers of Anna’s Hummingbirds (~9 body weights)[12]. Thus, the competitive intraspecific
interactions recorded here from Ruby-throated Hummingbirds may not be a good model for
studying maximum forward flight maneuvering performance.
Maximum speeds
Our hypothesis that the highest flight speeds would be found in the bird defending the feeder
was supported. The average maximum speed for a defending bird was found to be 9.2 ± 1.6 m
Field Flight Dynamics of Hummingbirds
PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0125659 June 3, 2015 16 / 20
s
-1
, whereas the average maximum speeds for non-chased birds and chased birds were 5.4 ± 1.4
ms
-1
and 6.2 ± 1.3 m s
-1
, respectively. The maximum speed recorded for a defending bird was
12.0 m s
-1
. This is less than the maximum speed of ~15 m s-1 reached by this species in wind
tunnel flights [33] and much less than the greater than 20 m s
-1
speeds achieved by diving
Anna’s Hummingbirds during mating displays [12], a more comparable case since the defend-
ing and displaying birds both take advantage of gravitational potential energy to power their
flights. The mean maximum speed reached by freely-departing birds here (5.4 m s
-1
) was well
within the flight range exhibited by Rufous Hummingbirds flying in a wind tunnel over a range
of speeds [34], but not at any well-defined minimum flapping frequency or minimum flapping
amplitude within the speed range.
Guidance and targeting
Our initial hypothesis, based on preliminary observation of hummingbird interactions and the
expected priority of defending the feeder over targeting the encroaching bird, was that the de-
fending bird would initially fly toward the feeder, not the encroaching and subsequently chased
bird, was not supported. Although the chased bird and feeder were in close proximity for much
of the initial descent phase, the flight trajectory of the defending bird was significantly closer to
the position of the chased bird than the feeder. We rarely recorded a maneuver by the defend-
ing bird to turn and follow the departing chased bird; most defending bird trajectories ended
with the bird returning to a level or slightly upward trajectory in approximately the same hori-
zontal direction as its initial descent.
Differences among sexes
Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are sexually dimorphic, with males having smaller body size,
more pointed wings and higher wingbeat frequencies. These differences are associated with dif-
ferences in flight performance in laboratory environments [35] which might also exist in field
flight behavior. However, the typical behavioral roles adopted by the birds in a natural environ-
ment make comparisons difficult since most defending birds are male as are most freely-
departing birds while most chased birds are female, potentially confounding the comparisons
of chased and freely departing birds if females prefer a descending departure trajectory while
males prefer an ascending one. The only case where a sufficient sample of both sexes was col-
lected to allow a statistical comparison was for chased birds, 28 of which were female while 5
were male. In this case, peak accelerations occurred at similar times with males exhibiting a
non-significantly greater maximum acceleration (15.6 ± 4.1 vs. 14.4 ± 4.1 m s
-2
, p = 0.6607)
and average kinematic power (23.3 ± 4.0 vs. 19.7 ± 9.0 W kg
-1
, p = 0.3988). Differences in aver-
age kinematic power during departure among chased and freely departing males approached
significance for the previously defined departure duration (23.3 ± 4.0 vs. 18.1 ± 5.0 W kg
-1
,
p = 0.0619), although not for slightly longer durations.
Limitations of the study
Interpretation of the results of this study faces two primary limitations—use of data from only
one recording location and uncertainty regarding the behavioral motivations of the birds and
how these may vary by the sexes of the birds involved in a particular encounter. Use of only
one site limits the generality of some aspects of the results; for example a different study site
with a different set of perches available for a defending bird would produce different flight tra-
jectories and possibly energy profiles given a difference in potential energy available to a de-
fender. Furthermore, use of only one site restricts the number of birds studied and our data set
certainly contains repeated measurements of the same bird. Since the birds themselves were
Field Flight Dynamics of Hummingbirds
PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0125659 June 3, 2015 17 / 20
not marked in an individually identifiable manner, we are not able to statistically correct for
this effect, so some of our findings may reflect idiosyncratic differences among individuals
rather than differences associated with the environment or behavior. For example, all record-
ings of a defender coming from the typical perch could be a single bird with a greater flight
speed than other, casual, defenders who used other starting points.
We also do not know the precise behavioral motivation underlying the different bird-bird
interactions we recorded. We analyzed our results in a resource competition framework where
birds are defending or encroaching upon the feeder, emphasizing the territorial aspects of
hummingbird behavior. However, it is also plausible that the typically male “defender”is in
fact performing a limited mating display to the typically female “encroaching”bird. Ruby-
throated hummingbird mating displays do include a “U-shaped”plummet and climb [22]by
the male near a perched female; this behavior was observed only once at the site during a scout-
ing trip prior to the recording days but does bear some resemblance to the plummet and swoop
defending bird trajectory described here. Mating displays in the related Anna’s Hummingbird
(Calypte anna) do include a dive followed by a chase [36], again somewhat similar to what was
recorded here although we did not observe extended chases of females by males. We also found
no statistical evidence for differences in flight kinematics based on the sex of the birds involved,
but as noted above our statistical power to test for these effects was quite limited.
However, our overall findings that freely behaving hummingbirds—whatever their motiva-
tion—use flight speeds much less the maximum achieved in laboratory wind tunnels close to
their expected maximum power output and act to use stored potential energy to enhance the
power available for types of maneuver. Examination of the effects of local environment and dif-
ferences in performance among known individuals form interesting topics for further study
given the results presented here.
Supporting Information
S1 Dataset. Field Flight Dynamics of Hummingbirds dataset. This archive contains the 3D
trajectory data files used as the basis for the analysis described in the manuscript. The data are
provided in a directory hierarchy where each recording day has a separate directory and each
recording within the day a separate subdirectory. These subdirectories contain a v7 MATLAB
data file "dataOut.mat" with a single struct variable "data" containing fields with the camera re-
cording frequency, the raw xyz coordinates, filtered xyz coordinates, velocities and accelera-
tions. Note that GNU Octave and Python can read v7 MATLAB data files. Also provided are
files specifying the trials used for different comparisons and the 3D position of the feeder in
each recording.
(ZIP)
Acknowledgments
We wish to thank the Hedrick lab personnel in general and Amanda Lohmann in particular for
their assistance in collecting and analyzing the video data as well as Dennis Evangelista for de-
veloping the autotracker software. Comments and feedback from two referees greatly improved
the manuscript.
Author Contributions
Conceived and designed the experiments: RMS TLH. Performed the experiments: KMS RMS.
Analyzed the data: KMS RMS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: TLH RMS.
Wrote the paper: KMS TLH.
Field Flight Dynamics of Hummingbirds
PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0125659 June 3, 2015 18 / 20
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