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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 are one of only four taxonomic groups to have evolved powered flight. A number of animals are capable of aerial locomotion, either by powered flight or by gliding. This trait has appeared by evolution many times, without any single common ancestor. Flight has evolved at least four times in separate animals: insects, pterosaurs, birds, and ...
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 a modified forelimb that serves as an aerofoil.
Bird anatomy, or the physiological structure of birds' bodies, shows many unique adaptations, mostly aiding flight.Birds have a light skeletal system and light but powerful musculature which, along with circulatory and respiratory systems capable of very high metabolic rates and oxygen supply, permit the bird to fly.
A new study shows that frigatebirds can - and do - sleep while flying, though the amount of sleep in the air is much less than on land. For first time, Scientists find evidence of birds sleeping ...
Bird anatomy is primarily adapted for efficient flight. Bird species that rely on swimming as well as flight must contend with the competing requirements of flight and swimming. Morphological characteristics that are advantageous in flight are actually detrimental to swimming performance.
Presumably due to rapid wingbeats for flight and hovering, hummingbird wings have adapted to perform without an alula. [151] The giant hummingbird's wings beat as few as 12 times per second, [152] and the wings of typical hummingbirds beat up to 80 times per second. [153]
Some researchers have suggested that treating arboreal and cursorial hypotheses as mutually exclusive explanations of the origin of bird flight is incorrect. [25] Researchers in support of synthesizing cite studies that show incipient wings have adaptive advantages for a variety of functions, including arboreal parachuting, WAIR, and horizontal ...