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Hummingbird Beeps With Its Feathers

Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News

Photos

Musical Male

Feo, a clarinetist in UC Berkeley's marching band, said, "You can essentially play the feathers like an instrument."

She and Clark suspect that sexual selection drove either, or both, the evolution of the male Anna's hummingbird tail feathers and the sound.

It's not clear, though, which came first: the female's desire for the feathers or their attraction to the beep.

The researchers believe that the world's smallest hummingbirds, like the ruby-throated and black-chinned hummers, might also be tail feather chirpers. In the future, they hope to study these, and other bird species to see if they too might chirp from their back ends.

Jimmy McGuire, an assistant professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at UC Berkeley, who did not work on the latest research, told Discovery News that the data is "overwhelming" and that he is now "100 percent convinced that the sound is all about the tail."

Douglas Altshuler, an assistant professor of biology at UC Riverside, echoed that sentiment.

"The research is flawless and the results are novel," Altshuler said, adding that he predicts the findings "will soon be incorporated into textbooks in ornithology, animal behavior and biomechanics."

Related Links:

Jennifer Viegas' blog: Born Animal

The Hummingbird Society

Museum of Vertebrate Zoology