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How oscillating aerodynamic forces explain the timbre of the hummingbird’s hum and other animals in flapping flight
How hummingbirds hum is not fully understood, but its biophysical origin is encoded in the acoustic nearfield. Hence, we studied six freely hovering Anna’s hummingbirds, performing acoustic nearfield holography using a 2176 microphone array in vivo, while also directly measuring the 3D aerodynamic f...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8055270/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33724182 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.63107 |
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author | Hightower, Ben J Wijnings, Patrick WA Scholte, Rick Ingersoll, Rivers Chin, Diana D Nguyen, Jade Shorr, Daniel Lentink, David |
author_facet | Hightower, Ben J Wijnings, Patrick WA Scholte, Rick Ingersoll, Rivers Chin, Diana D Nguyen, Jade Shorr, Daniel Lentink, David |
author_sort | Hightower, Ben J |
collection | PubMed |
description | How hummingbirds hum is not fully understood, but its biophysical origin is encoded in the acoustic nearfield. Hence, we studied six freely hovering Anna’s hummingbirds, performing acoustic nearfield holography using a 2176 microphone array in vivo, while also directly measuring the 3D aerodynamic forces using a new aerodynamic force platform. We corroborate the acoustic measurements by developing an idealized acoustic model that integrates the aerodynamic forces with wing kinematics, which shows how the timbre of the hummingbird’s hum arises from the oscillating lift and drag forces on each wing. Comparing birds and insects, we find that the characteristic humming timbre and radiated power of their flapping wings originates from the higher harmonics in the aerodynamic forces that support their bodyweight. Our model analysis across insects and birds shows that allometric deviation makes larger birds quieter and elongated flies louder, while also clarifying complex bioacoustic behavior. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8055270 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-80552702021-04-22 How oscillating aerodynamic forces explain the timbre of the hummingbird’s hum and other animals in flapping flight Hightower, Ben J Wijnings, Patrick WA Scholte, Rick Ingersoll, Rivers Chin, Diana D Nguyen, Jade Shorr, Daniel Lentink, David eLife Evolutionary Biology How hummingbirds hum is not fully understood, but its biophysical origin is encoded in the acoustic nearfield. Hence, we studied six freely hovering Anna’s hummingbirds, performing acoustic nearfield holography using a 2176 microphone array in vivo, while also directly measuring the 3D aerodynamic forces using a new aerodynamic force platform. We corroborate the acoustic measurements by developing an idealized acoustic model that integrates the aerodynamic forces with wing kinematics, which shows how the timbre of the hummingbird’s hum arises from the oscillating lift and drag forces on each wing. Comparing birds and insects, we find that the characteristic humming timbre and radiated power of their flapping wings originates from the higher harmonics in the aerodynamic forces that support their bodyweight. Our model analysis across insects and birds shows that allometric deviation makes larger birds quieter and elongated flies louder, while also clarifying complex bioacoustic behavior. eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2021-03-16 /pmc/articles/PMC8055270/ /pubmed/33724182 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.63107 Text en © 2021, Hightower et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Evolutionary Biology Hightower, Ben J Wijnings, Patrick WA Scholte, Rick Ingersoll, Rivers Chin, Diana D Nguyen, Jade Shorr, Daniel Lentink, David How oscillating aerodynamic forces explain the timbre of the hummingbird’s hum and other animals in flapping flight |
title | How oscillating aerodynamic forces explain the timbre of the hummingbird’s hum and other animals in flapping flight |
title_full | How oscillating aerodynamic forces explain the timbre of the hummingbird’s hum and other animals in flapping flight |
title_fullStr | How oscillating aerodynamic forces explain the timbre of the hummingbird’s hum and other animals in flapping flight |
title_full_unstemmed | How oscillating aerodynamic forces explain the timbre of the hummingbird’s hum and other animals in flapping flight |
title_short | How oscillating aerodynamic forces explain the timbre of the hummingbird’s hum and other animals in flapping flight |
title_sort | how oscillating aerodynamic forces explain the timbre of the hummingbird’s hum and other animals in flapping flight |
topic | Evolutionary Biology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8055270/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33724182 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.63107 |
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