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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.
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"
They also fly over the peaks of the Himalayas on their migratory path. [4] Whooper swan: Cygnus cygnus: Anatidae: 8,200 metres (27,000 feet) This height was attained by a flock of whooper swans flying over Northern Ireland, and recorded by radar. [2] [5] Alpine chough: Pyrrhocorax graculus: Corvidae: 8,000 metres (26,500 feet)
Weight is the largest obstacle birds must overcome in order to fly. An animal can more easily attain flight by reducing its absolute weight. Birds evolved from other theropod dinosaurs that had already gone through a phase of size reduction during the Middle Jurassic , combined with rapid evolutionary changes. [ 3 ]
This is a list of the fastest flying birds in the world. A bird's velocity is necessarily variable; a hunting bird will reach much greater speeds while diving to catch prey than when flying horizontally. The bird that can achieve the greatest airspeed is the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus), able to exceed 320 km/h (200 mph) in its dives.
How do birds see colors? As colorful as birds are to the human eye, we’re actually “colorblind with respect to birds,” Prum said. That’s because birds see an even wider gamut of colors ...
When preening, a bird (such as this red lory) draws individual feathers through its beak, realigning and re-interlocking the barbules.. Preening is a maintenance behaviour found in birds that involves the use of the beak to position feathers, interlock feather barbules that have become separated, clean plumage, and keep ectoparasites in check.
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