Beautiful Hummingbirds in Slow Motion

Sam and Simon visit a special location in Los Angeles and use a high speed camera to reveal some of the hummingbirds' most intriguing behaviour.

Video Script:: 

what's so cool about filming hummingbirds in slow motion is you can really make out what their wings are up to I just couldn't resist rim to get a slow-mo camera and giving it a go and that's kind of really showing what I'd like to see they're so precise in their action they can find the flower really nicely but actually they're really efficient flies when they're flying backwards as well almost just as efficient as their forward flight if I can see that in slow-mo I'll be a happy happy boy [Music] [Laughter] [Music] I was cool I think I rather like me until I was just laying there camera now has 800 frames a second and I wasn't sure if its new fastest bird GSP no wings so fast these guys are real masters of flight it's quite extraordinary when they're flying all you can really see is their body because they're able to keep it incredibly still and they have to keep it still to be able to get that really thin beak into really thin flowers be able to find that nectar it really living life in the fast lane in fact their heart has to go thousand beats a minute just to pump that blood around so they can fly so efficiently but it is thirsty work they have to drink every ten minutes or so they consume about 10 calories a day which doesn't sound very much but when you only weigh of a couple of grams has quite a lot [Music] [Music] oh really see those wings going to town they're just the basic story things they're not much bigger than a large Hornet really and for a long time scientists thought their wings worked in a very similar way to insects where this is a figure of eight pattern so they get lift on both the downstroke like a normal bird and the upstroke because they can invert their wings and moving backwards but actually recently it's been found out that they do get some lift up the earth stroke only about 25% of that lift and 75% still with the downstroke but that's still much more than any other bird it's been incredible and they're still flowing now like light is going very quickly but they're still flowing all around us um I'm quite excited I have got a little idea that we would love to do if you're right for time water and hummingbirds in slow motion [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music]