Aerobatic birds

[oblivia]

Are hummingbirds really the only birds that can fly backwards?

[rekstout]

Yes - the hummingbird is the only genus of birds that can fly backwards and also upside down. Many birds can appear to fly backwards when flying into a strong wind but only th hummingbird can achieve the same feat under powered flight

[oblivia]

Having looked into this I am now sure that this is a popular myth. It seems that the red-tailed tropicbird is famous for its backward-flying mating rituals...

[rekstout]

I notice that before but it appears that the tropicbird can only do so into headwinds and at 45 degrees from vertical. The hummingbird is the only bird with the correct skeletal/wing structure to actually fly backwards on the horizontal plane under its own power.

So what it really boils down to is how do we define flight and how we define backwards.

[steve_nova]

Backwards, yes, but not the only birds to fly upside down. Ravens (at least the Northern Raven, Corvus corax) have been seen to fly upside down for some distance just it would seem for the hell of it. Being one of natures intelligent, opportunistic creatures, I suppose they just get bored sometimes?