Doctor Bird (Trochilus Polytmus/Scitulus) – Etymology
Doctor Bird, is a frequently used moniker for the Swallow-Tail Hummingbird, the most breath-taking of the 320 species of hummingbirds. Found only on the Paradise island of Jamaica, the aristocratic Doctor Bird is the most abundant and widespread member of the hummingbird ancestry. Doctor Bird is also the National Bird of Jamaica.
Flight Mechanics
Fuelled by nectar and propelled by rapid wing-flapping rates of 50 times in a single second at its slowest, shifting to 100 beats in just one second, God Bird is, by comparison, the equivalent of a jet-powered vertebrate, built to fly at speeds which competes with motor-vehicles. These speeds exceed 15 m/s (54 km/h; 34 mph) in reverse flight, and Doctor Bird can invert it’s body orientation so what should be higher is lower or the side that should be underneath is on top (upside-down flight).
Studies at the University of California at Berkeley using high-speed video to study hummingbird flight mechanics have led to the realisation male hummingbird high speed manoeuvers subjects them to the equivalent of sustained accelerations that would cause fighter jet pilots to pass out from g-force stress. According to measurements taken hummingbirds are experiencing 10-Gs; fighter pilots can pass out, or become temporarily blind when they pull 7 or more Gs’. For their body size hummingbirds are believed to be the fastest moving vertebrates, and interestingly some traditions in Greek mythology have credited Trochilus with invention of the chariot.
Longer than the Doctor Birds’ body and trailing behind the flying hummingbird like thin black streamers, are Rectrices (Latin for "helmsman"). Rectrices are only found on males of the species, and help the bird to brake and steer in flight; these feathers account for the in-flight-hover whining humming sound, and is the logical basis for the moniker “Hummingbird”. The humming sound is created as beating wings flap at high frequencies audible to humans.
Festooned with beautiful feathers which produce iridescent colours, a defining feature found only in that family, and is unequal in the entire bird population compels one to recognize and appreciate the beauty, grace, rarity, and distinguishing traits of the legendary God Bird.
Studies at the University of California at Berkeley using high-speed video to study hummingbird flight mechanics have led to the realisation male hummingbird high speed manoeuvers subjects them to the equivalent of sustained accelerations that would cause fighter jet pilots to pass out from g-force stress. According to measurements taken hummingbirds are experiencing 10-Gs; fighter pilots can pass out, or become temporarily blind when they pull 7 or more Gs’. For their body size hummingbirds are believed to be the fastest moving vertebrates, and interestingly some traditions in Greek mythology have credited Trochilus with invention of the chariot.
Hummingbird Anatomy
Festooned with beautiful feathers which produce iridescent colours, a defining feature found only in that family, and is unequal in the entire bird population compels one to recognize and appreciate the beauty, grace, rarity, and distinguishing traits of the legendary God Bird.