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Title
Japanese: 
English:Quantifying the dynamic wing morphing of hovering hummingbird 
Author
Japanese: Masateru Maeda, Toshiyuki Nakata, Ikuo Kitamura, 田中 博人, 劉 浩.  
English: Masateru Maeda, Toshiyuki Nakata, Ikuo Kitamura, Hiroto Tanaka, Hao Liu.  
Language English 
Journal/Book name
Japanese: 
English:Royal Society Open Science 
Volume, Number, Page vol. 4       
Published date Sept. 20, 2017 
Publisher
Japanese: 
English:The Royal Society Publishing 
Conference name
Japanese: 
English: 
Conference site
Japanese: 
English: 
Official URL http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/4/9/170307
 
DOI https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170307
Abstract Animal wings are lightweight and flexible; hence, during flapping flight their shapes change. It has been known that such dynamic wing morphing reduces aerodynamic cost in insects, but the consequences in vertebrate flyers, particularly birds, are not well understood. We have developed a method to reconstruct a three-dimensional wing model of a bird from the wing outline and the feather shafts (rachides). The morphological and kinematic parameters can be obtained using the wing model, and the numerical or mechanical simulations may also be carried out. To test the effectiveness of the method, we recorded the hovering flight of a hummingbird (Amazilia amazilia) using high-speed cameras and reconstructed the right wing. The wing shape varied substantially within a stroke cycle. Specifically, the maximum and minimum wing areas differed by 18%, presumably due to feather sliding; the wing was bent near the wrist joint, towards the upward direction and opposite to the stroke direction; positive upward camber and the ‘washout’ twist (monotonic decrease in the angle of incidence from the proximal to distal wing) were observed during both half-strokes; the spanwise distribution of the twist was uniform during downstroke, but an abrupt increase near the wrist joint was found during upstroke.

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