Animals that Fly

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Animals that Fly

• Characteristics of some animals that can fly

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My Questions

• Why are Flamingos Pink?
• Why do Bats sleep upside down?
• How do hummingbirds hover in the air?

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Research process

• After thinking of my questions, I first went to
  www.wikipedia.org in order to get some
  preliminary background information on each topic
• I then went to other sites (avoiding any .com
  sites that I could) in order to find my specific
  answers and details
• After I had my details, I had to edit the
  information in order to make it fit in a 4-6th
  grade classroom.
• Finally, after I had the information, I began
  looking for pictures for my slide presentation.

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Question 1

• Why Are flamingos Pink?

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Why are Flamingos Pink?

• Flamingos actually range in color from very light
  pink to very dark pink depending on their diet.
• Alpha and beta carotenes which are in the foods
  that the flamingos eat every day cause their
  feathers to collect the pinkish pigment.
• These carotenes are the same things that make
  carrots orange!

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Question 2

• Why do bats sleep

Upside Down?
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Why do bats sleep upside down?

• Most likely, bats developed the habit of sleeping
  upside down for two main reasons
• The first is in order to stay away from predators
  because bats have to sleep during the day when
  other animals are awake.

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Why do bats sleep upside down?

• Another reason that bats sleep upside down is
  because it allows them to take flight without
  having to lift off from the ground, one of the
  most complicated and tiring parts of flight.

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Question 3

• How do hummingbirds hover in one place while
  flying?

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How do hummingbirds hover in one place?

• Normal birds create two forces when they flap
  their wings Lift that pushes them off of the
  ground, and Thrust moves them forward.
• Hummingbirds can reverse their wings, creating
  downward lift and backwards thrust.
• In order to hover, the hummingbird has to go back
  and forth between the two kinds of wing flaps.

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Hummingbird wing flap patterns

• Pictured below are the different wing flap
  patterns for the things that a hummingbird can do.

• They do all of this while flapping their wings up
  to 70 times per second!

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Websites used

• www.learner.org/jnorth/search/HummerNotes1.html
• www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/zoo00/zoo00751.htm
• www.thewildones.org/Animals/flamingo.htmlpink
• www.wikipedia.org
• http//www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id1042
  63orgNSFfromnews