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Published online 15 May 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.830
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Birds defy gravity, but not by flying
Waders consume prey in droplets lifted from the water.
Birds can beat gravity in ways other than flying — some waders can also make food travel upwards by quickly opening and closing their beaks.
To investigate how this could happen mathematician John Bush from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, and his colleagues watched a range of wading birds with long, thin beaks.
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