What's faster than a space shuttle on re-entry, dives from thirty metres in the air, and sings through its tail? If you said "Liza Minnelli", you're partly right. But the answer was: a hummingbird in love.

 

  Researchers at the University of California have discovered that the dramatic courtship dive of the male Anna's Hummingbird is the quickest aerial maneuver by any animal -- relatively speaking, at least.

Listen to Carol Off's interview with Dr. Christopher Clark, the lead author of the study and a researcher at the University of California Berkeley.

(runs 4:33) (originally aired on June 22, 2009)

After we heard from him, our listeners hovered over their keyboards -- and the e-mails came flying.

Dave Butler in Vancouver sent us the following letter:

"During dinner last night, my wife Sandy and I were listening to the conversation with Dr. Christopher Clark. He described the impressive high-speed airborne dive of the male, a feat that is apparently is designed to impress the female.

I had to shush Sandy, because she was exclaiming (derisively) about how yet another male scientist was researching the sexual habits of obscure animals. I wanted to hear the interview, because I was hoping to learn some tips on mating displays. Alas, I learned that the high-speed dive is supposed to occur in full sunlight, heading toward the female. This, unfortunately, would expose the ever-enlarging bald spot on the top of my head, thereby rendering the display somewhat anticlimactic.
"Please, do not worry about Sandy's view, and continue to interview these wild-kingdom sex researchers. I live in hope."

We also received this note from Eric Pittman in Victoria, B.C.:

"Right now I have four or five Anna's Hummingbirds in my yard, two adults with two young ones being fed by them and one other sitting on some eggs in a nest. We found the nest only after careful scrutiny of our pear tree, and it is so well-disguised you could not recognize it as a nest unless there was a bird on it. I have been able to photograph them feeding the young ones."

These are Mr. Pittman's photos