Visual guidance of forward flight in hummingbirds reveals control based on image features instead of pattern velocity.

ABSTRACT: Information about self-motion and obstacles in the environment is encoded by optic flow, the movement of images on the eye. Decades of research have revealed that flying insects control speed, altitude, and trajectory by a simple strategy of maintaining or balancing the translational velocity of images on the eyes, known as pattern velocity. It has been proposed that birds may use a similar algorithm but this hypothesis has not been tested directly. We examined the influence of pattern velocity on avian flight by manipulating the motion of patterns on the walls of a tunnel traversed by Anna's hummingbirds. Contrary to prediction, we found that lateral course control is not based on regulating nasal-to-temporal pattern velocity. Instead, birds closely monitored feature height in the vertica

SUBMITTER: Dakin R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4978297 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature