Big airplanes can power through turbulence, but for smaller planes like drones, shifting winds and air currents can cause more than discomfort. And hovering is particularly complicated.

That’s a problem that the ruby-throated hummingbird has had to solve. The birds live on such a tight energy budget that they cannot afford to miss meals, so they must be able to hover, with their heads steady, while they feed on nectar, even in tough conditions.

They do it with a combination of wing and tail movements, according to Australian and American scientists who tested the birds in a wind tunnel with both a steady breeze and one that varied in intensity as much as 15 percent. Small drones can handle only about a 7 percent variation.

Sridhar Ravi, a research fellow at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia; Stacey A. Combes at Harvard; and their colleagues used high-speed video to record how the birds managed turbulence in a wind tunnel.