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Birds (flying, soaring) – Most of the approximately 10,000 living species can fly (flightless birds are the exception). Bird flight is one of the most studied forms of aerial locomotion in animals. See List of soaring birds for birds that can soar as well as fly. Townsends's big-eared bat, (Corynorhinus townsendii) displaying the "hand wing"
Wings, which are modified forelimbs, gave birds the ability to fly, although further evolution has led to the loss of flight in some birds, including ratites, penguins, and diverse endemic island species. The digestive and respiratory systems of birds are also uniquely adapted for flight.
Flight is the primary means of locomotion for most bird species and is used for breeding, feeding and predator avoidance and escape. Birds have various adaptations for flight, including a lightweight skeleton, two large flight muscles, the pectoralis (which accounts for 15% of the total mass of the bird) and the supracoracoideus, as well as ...
Crested caracara, Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge Crested caracara (C. plancus) in flight Caracaras are birds of prey in the family Falconidae.They are traditionally placed in subfamily Polyborinae with the forest falcons, [1] but are sometimes considered to constitute their own subfamily, Caracarinae, [2] or classified as members of the true falcon subfamily, Falconinae. [3]
The flight of some species is characterised by a distinctive "flicking" action quite different from swallows. Swifts range in size from the pygmy swiftlet ( Collocalia troglodytes ), which weighs 5.4 g and measures 9 cm (3.5 in) long, to the purple needletail ( Hirundapus celebensis ), which weighs 184 g (6.5 oz) and measures 25 cm (9.8 in) long.
Loss of flight allows birds to eliminate the costs of maintaining various flight-enabling adaptations like high pectoral muscle mass, hollow bones and a light build, et cetera. [33] The basal metabolic rate of flighted species is much higher than that of flightless terrestrial birds. [ 34 ]
Bird flight is the primary mode of locomotion used by most bird species in which birds take off and fly. Flight assists birds with feeding, breeding , avoiding predators , and migrating . Bird flight includes multiple types of motion, including hovering, taking off, and landing, involving many complex movements.
A similar flight method is thought to have been used by the extinct petrel family Diomedeoididae. [23] The white-faced storm petrel possesses a unique variation on pattering: holding its wings motionless and at an angle into the wind, it pushes itself off the water's surface in a succession of bounding jumps.