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Why do insects like bees and flies buzz when flying? Does expending energy to make this sound help them?
Guy Cox
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
When birds or insects fly, they displace air with their wings – that is how it works. Maybe sometime at night you have disturbed an owl and heard the flap of its large wings. This sound is a frequency way below hearing it as a note, but the principle is the same.
Hummingbirds are the only birds small enough to produce an audible note with their wings.
Bees don’t try to buzz, it is just…
