110. Are
hummingbirds the only birds that fly backward? While hummingbirds are probably the champions
of backward flight, they are by no means the only birds that can fly in this
way. When two herons or egrets fight, periodically one of them caught at a
disadvantage in the dispute will flutter backward. Occasionally warblers
fluttering at the tip of a branch as they pick off insects will flutter
backward to a better position. Flycatchers regularly flutter backward
when they overshoot some flying insect. It is probable that any bird
which uses fluttering flight can move backward when pressed to do so.
NOTE: It’s funny that this 1001 Questions Answered About Birds entry is a bit of an authors’ editorial
misstep.
Pose the question in the
way they did, leading off with the “champion” description in the first sentence and ALL
anyone really wants to know is more about hummingbirds.
Forget (for now) lovely herons, egrets and warblers.
HOW do hummingbirds do it and, more importantly, WHY do
they do it?
The answer to the second
question is, of course, obvious: Because they can.
It is part of the great
talent, freedom and commitment to that talent and freedom that God gave them.
A long time ago I had a
friend whose salient trait was that he invariably drove in the wrong
direction fast. He was a nice person (basically; troubled, a
little hostile, but a good soul), but he was the opposite of the
hummingbird: a sad
poor human heavily burdened with a highly symbolic deficit.
I would give
anything to fly and I’d love to
fly like a hummingbird.
Faust: Don't Take Roots (Link)
From: 1001 Questions Answered
About Birds by Allan D. Cruickshank and Helen G. Cruickshank (Toronto, General Publishing Company, 1958).
