Hi RAZD. Sorry I didn't reply sooner, I was serving my first suspension (yea! I've arrived at EvC
)
I have also watched birds of prey hover over potential prey move backwards.
Maybe it's different in the US but every bird of prey I've watched over here (and thinking about it on every nature documentary I've ever watched) hovers by riding a thermal, and any backwards movement is just adjusting position within the thermal.
To compare this to the powered hovering and backward movement of a hummingbird seems kind of risible to me.
Wait a minute - let's look at the sentence which follows:
I wouldn't call it "flying backwards"...
Ok so given the topic is
flying backwards you pretty much state yourself it's irrelevant to the discussion so we can just forget you brought it up.
I don't know enought about the honeycreepers in Hawaii (especially the extinct ones) to know what their abilities were (using a similar food source) or enough about tropical birds to say that none others have the ability to back up.
Neither do I. I was merely repeating what is frequently stated on nature and science programs (and quiz shows and Trivial Pursuit cards etc.). Maybe it is just an urban myth - but I can find nothing on the web that says so.
Choosing a species that is "best" at some ability or other, and then claiming that "wow, it's better than all the others, so it must not be evolution" is post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy coupled with the argument from incredulity and ignorance and then leaping to a conclusion not supported by evidence.
And you're addressing this paragraph to me why exactly? You asked 'what was unique about hummigbird flight?' and I replied 'they are unique amonst birds in their ability to fly backwards'. In what way does my observation that to the best of my knowledge hummingbirds are the only birds that can fly backwards have
any connection with the paragraph above? Keep your condescending irrelevancies to yourself in future please.
Again, what is so unique about hummingbird flight? What is\are the feature(s) that would show up in fossils?
Well according to the
Smithsonian Institute it's the elbow and wrist bones:
Unlike those of other birds, hummingbirds' elbows and wrist bones are fused and virtually immobile.
The article also contains some a mention of the difference between the hummingbird wing motion and that of other birds (and helicopters!):
The pattern of the wing-beat is more of a figure-eight than a circle like a helicopter or an up and down motion like other birds. With this motion, hummingbirds can use their unusual wings to hover, fly forward, fly backwards, and even fly upside down.
Go on, admit it - they're unique - Trivial Pursuit is never wrong
Oops! Wrong Planet