Lucy HicksStarlings, swifts, and small birds called dippers build nests in the most unlikely places: behind the powerful curtains of waterfalls.
But how they penetrate the pounding streams to reach their safe havens has long been a mystery. Now, research reveals just how small fliers can traverse these splashy obstacles—and how the waterfalls could protect against another threat: blood-sucking bugs.To understand the physics of waterfall crossing, scientists turned to hummingbirds.
Although the little buzzers don’t typically pop in and out of falls, they are close relatives of waterfall-nesting swifts and easier to work with in a lab because of their smaller size.First, the researchers built a 54-liter flight chamber, with a feeder on one.