Aerial Animals - Examples and Characteristics

Author: Laura McKinney
Date Of Creation: 5 August 2021
Update Date: 13 November 2024
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Aerial Animals 👌 : What are aerial animals, types, characteristics & examples 🔥 #Animals
Video: Aerial Animals 👌 : What are aerial animals, types, characteristics & examples 🔥 #Animals

Content

Flying is one of the ways animals use to move, but not everyone is able to do this. In order to fly, it is necessary to have physical characteristics that allow the flight. The human being, through the observation of aerial animals, took centuries to create a machine that flies, for example, like a bird.

Only a few groups of animals have the real ability to fly, however, if we look at it from the perspective of the number of species, the majority of animal species that exist on the planet do fly - insects. In this article by PeritoAnimal, you will know what are the aerial animals, their characteristics and some examples of flying animals.


What are flying animals and aerial animals?

In general, flying animals and aerial animals are synonymous, although there are exceptions that we will show throughout the article where "flying" and "airy" do not mean the same thing. Also, aerial animals are those that use flight as a locomotion mechanism. For some animals this is the only way to get around, but many others use it as an escape route in the presence of a predator.

Certain animals spend most of their lives flying, performing all of their vital functions in the air: eating, interacting with their environment and their fellow creatures, or reproducing. For them, flying is essential to live. Other animals only acquire the ability to fly when they reach adulthood. Some species are capable of flying long distances, such as the migratory animals, others only need to fly short distances.


Each animal species or group of animals has a different mechanic to move using the flight, so they will have different but similar features, since the ultimate goal is the same: to fly.

Are gliding animals aerial animals?

This is the exception we mentioned in the previous section, where "air" and "flying" are not used interchangeably. gliding animals are considered aerial animals, but not flying animals.. This is because they cannot fly but move through the air. For this, these animals have small, light bodies and a very thin skin membrane that unites their limbs. So, when jumping, they stretch their limbs and use this membrane to glide. Within this group we find both mammals and reptiles.

Characteristics of aerial animals

Each species of flying animal has its own way of flying, according to its physical characteristics, but most of these animals must have a series of common attributes that enable flight:


  • wings: all flying animals have wings. In some cases, these wings are modifications of the forelimbs of the body, as in birds or flying mammals (bats), where the bones have been modified throughout evolution to provide or improve the ability to fly. Other animals have evolved wings that are considered an evolutionary convergence, that is, they occurred under similar environmental pressures. This is the case with insects.
  • low weight: for an animal to fly, it cannot be too heavy. Birds have reduced the weight of their bones by increasing their porosity, making them lighter. Flying invertebrates weigh little because the material their exoskeleton is made of is so light. Flying animals that have a greater weight cannot fly long distances because they cannot stay in flight for very long.
  • heart capacity: both the muscles responsible for flight and the heart muscle itself are highly developed in flying animals. Flying consumes a lot of energy and more oxygen needs to reach the muscles. For this to happen, the heart rate is very high and the concentrations of hemoglobin in the blood (a protein that carries oxygen in the blood) are too.
  • aerodynamic shape: body shape is also important. Reducing the resistance that the body exerts against the air serves to make flying more efficient. Having a less aerodynamic shape doesn't mean the animal won't be able to fly, but it does make it slower.

Types of aerial animals

There are different types of aerial animals, according to the phylum to which they belong. Thus, we have the following types of flying animals:

  • aerial mammals, which are bats or bats. We cannot consider other mammals, like the flying squirrel, as a flying animal, but as an aerial animal, because it doesn't actually fly, it just glides. The only truly flying mammals are bats.
  • birds, but not all of them are aerial animals, as there are several species that cannot fly due to their weight or lack of wings. Some of the birds that do not fly are kiwis, ostriches, and the now extinct dodos.
  • Ivertebrates, although only the animals belonging to the class Insecta have wings and be able to fly. In these animals, the wings only appear and are functional during adulthood. Some insects do not have wings as adults, but this is due to an evolutionary adaptation called neoteny, or the conservation of juvenile characteristics.

Examples of aerial animals

As mentioned, the vast majority of birds are aerial animals. A very clear example is the swifts. These animals, after leaving the nest, spend their entire lives in the air. They feed by opening their beaks and hunting mosquitoes, court their partners as they fly, and may even copulate in the air.

Other examples of aerial animals are:

  • You psittacidos or parrots they are also aerial animals, despite being excellent climbers. Many parrots migrate and, for that, they need to have good flight capacity.
  • O hammerhead fruit bat, the largest species of African bat, is an aerial animal like the rest of the bats. With nocturnal habits, he spends the hours of the day sleeping and feeding on fruits, but also on poultry or scavengers.
  • THE monarch butterfly is a good example of an aerial animal belonging to the group of insects, as in its life cycle it carries out some of the longest migrations on the planet.

List of animals that fly

Although the ones we mentioned above are the aerial animals that we can see most often in our daily lives, there are many flying species that exist. Below, we show you a complete list with some of them:

  • European Bee (Apis mellifera)
  • Giant Albatross (Diomedea exulans)
  • Iberian Imperial Eagle (Aquila Adalberti)
  • Osprey (pandion haliaetus)
  • Royal Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos)
  • Fusel (Lapponic slime)
  • German Wasp (Germanic Vespula)
  • Ruppell's Gryphon (Gyps Rueppelli)
  • Black Vulture (Aegypius monachus)
  • Eagle Owl (vulture vulture)
  • Common Sea Partridge (pratincola gril)
  • White Stork (ciconia ciconia)
  • Black Stork (ciconia nigra)
  • Andes Condor (vultur gryphus)
  • Cockroach (Blattella germanica)
  • Imperial heron (purple ardea)
  • Dark-winged Gull (larus fucus)
  • Arctic tern (heavenly sterna)
  • Common Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus)
  • Lesser Flamingo (Phoeniconaias minor)
  • Peregrine Falcon (falco peregrinus)
  • White Owl (Tyto alba)
  • Orange Dragonfly (pantala flavescens)
  • Atlas moth (atlas atlas)
  • Black Kite (milvus migrans)
  • Wooly bat (Myotis emarginatus)
  • Large arboreal bat (Nyctalus noctula)
  • Common Pigeon (Columba livia)
  • Common Pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus)
  • Nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos)
  • Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica)
  • Meganso-de-save (Mergus saw)
  • Swift (apus apus)
  • Mongolian Swift (Hirundapus caudacutus)
  • Cuban bee hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae)

To learn more about some of these aerial animals and see their photos, in the following sections we show 10 flying birds and insects.

1. Royal water (Aquila chrysaetos)

Typically, this bird flies about 4,000 meters above sea level, although specimens with a capacity to exceed 6,000 meters have been found.

2. Rueppell's Gryphon (Gyps rueppelli)

It is the flying bird with the highest ability to fly, reaching more than 11,000 meters in height.

3. Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus)

It is the fastest bird in horizontal flight, reaching 200 km/h.

4. Cuban bee hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae)

This type of hummingbird is the smallest bird in the world (it weighs less than 2 grams) and can reach a speed of 50 km/h.

5. Cockroach (Blattella germanica)

This is one of the winged cockroach varieties, so it has the ability to fly. Its size is small, barely reaching 2 cm in length.

6. Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea)

The arctic tern or arctic tern is a small bird (25-40 cm) that stands out for its migratory journeys, traveling from the Arctic to Antarctica and covering more than 40,000 km.

7. Common Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus)

The common flamingo is one of the best known migratory birds in the world, as they are animals that fly over long distances. It travels based on food availability, and can travel from West Africa to the Mediterranean.

8. Orange Dragonfly (Pantala flavescens)

This type of dragonfly is considered the migratory insect that travels the longest distance, reaching over 18,000 km.

9. Atlas moth (Attacus atlas)

It is the largest butterfly in the world, measuring up to 30 cm with its wings wide open. Of course, precisely because of its large size, its flight is heavier and slower than that of smaller species.

10. Nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos)

The nightingale is a bird known for its beautiful song, and this bird is able to emit very varied tones, which it learns from its parents and transmits to their children.

If you want to read more articles similar to Aerial Animals - Examples and Characteristics, we recommend that you enter our Curiosities section of the animal world.