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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
APOLOGETICS
STEWARDSHIP
CREATION Q & A
Hummingbirds!
RESEARCH
ho doesnt pause to marvel when a hummingbird flies by?
had somehow selected a bird with a hinge joint, long primary feathThese tiny, colorful birds perform amazing aerobatic feats,
ers, and head-balancing and body-leveling circuitry, but it still had
and yet some very smart scientists insist that mere natural
a short beak with a short tongue to fitor even a long tongue that
forces mimicked a real engineer to construct these fascinatdidnt fit! Such a creature might hover in front of a flower but could
ing flyers. Authors of a Nature paper on hummingbird flight wrote
never reach its food without a suitable beak. Wouldnt such a partly
in 2005 that the selective pressure on hummingbird ancestors was
evolved creature starve to death before selection forces could add
probably for increased efficiency.1 They imagine that hummingbirds
the right beak?
evolved from ancestors that could hover only briefly. But an examiEven if nature somehow crafted a hummingbird with every
nation of just a few key hummingbird features leaves no doubt that
flight-required part except onesay, its primary feathers were a
the hand of the Lord has done this,2 not natural selective pressures.
centimeter too short, or it had everything in place except its unique
Hummingbird beaks, bones, and feathers differ from those of
hinge jointthe creature could not fly. Therefore, it could not re3
all other living or extinct bird kinds.
produce or evolve.
Their wings dont fold in the middle.
New hummingbird research has
Instead, they have a unique swivel joint
revealed other fascinating features.
where the wing attaches to the body so
Birds generate a lot of heat when they
that the wings rotate in a figure-eight
fly. Considering their speed, you might
pattern. And they move fast! They have
expect hummingbirds to burst into
to beat their wings rapidly to hover,
flames at any moment. Where does all
levitating with level heads as they exthat body heat go? Infrared cameras
tract nectar from flowers for hours
revealed hummingbird radiators that
per day. Scientists still need to discover
direct body heat out through the feet,
the birds mental software that coordishoulders, and eye areas.6 And some
nates information about the location
male hummingbirds use air flowing
of a flowers center with muscle motion
through their tail feathers to produce
that expertly stabilizes the hummingmelodious sounds during courtship.7
birds little head as it drinks.4
Our great Creator expertly integrated
Its long, slender beak and skinny Image credit: Copyright 2015 The Royal Society. Adapted for use in accordance with federal
all these phenomenal features into His
tongue dip into and out of the flower copyright (fair use doctrine) law. Usage by ICR does not imply endorsement of copyright holder.
tiny aerobatic experts.
to gather nectar using a clever autoReferences
matic fluid-trapping mechanism. Tiny, curved structures along the
1. Warrick, D. R., B. W. Tobalske, and D. R. Powers. 2005. Aerodynamics of the hovering hummingbird. Nature. 435 (7045): 1094-1097.
tongues tip open to hold nectar, then curl up tightly after the bird
2. Job 12:9b.
3. Hummingbird fossils look like modern hummingbirds. See Mayr, G. 2004. Old World Fossil
swallows.5 When the hummingbird finishes with one floweror
Record of Modern-Type Hummingbirds. Science. 304 (5672): 861-864.
4. They also eat spiders and insects for proteins and lipids.
with the backyard hummingbird feederit moves away by flying
5. Rico-Guevara, A., and M. A. Rubega. 2011. The hummingbird tongue is a fluid trap, not a capbackward! It could not do this, nor could it twist, dive, or maneuver
illary tube. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 108 (23):
9356-9360. Also see the online video FLIGHT: The Genus of Birds
through the air the way it does, without having extra-long primary
-Hummingbird tongue. Illustra Media. Posted on youtube.com June
18, 2013, accessed January 26, 2016.
feathers on its wings. These are the largest body feathers and produce
6. Powers, D. R. et al. 2015. Heat dissipation during hovering and forward flight in hummingbirds. Royal Society Open Science. 2: 150598.
most of the needed lift.
7. Clark, C. J., D. O. Elias, and R. O. Prum. 2011. Aeroelastic Flutter Produces Hummingbird Feather Songs. Science. 333 (6048): 1430-1433.
Could evolution transform a bird like a treeswift into a humMr.
Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.
mingbird by adding required parts one at a time? Imagine that nature
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ACTS
&
FACTS
APRIL 2016
