Flying animals: characteristics and curiosities

Author: John Stephens
Date Of Creation: 21 January 2021
Update Date: 22 December 2024
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Not all birds fly. And different animals, which are not birds, can do it, such as the bat, a mammal. be for the displacement, hunting or survival, this ability of animals has always inspired us, humans, to say Alberto Santos Dumont, Brazilian inventor best known as the "father of aviation".

In this article by PeritoAnimal we are going to explore a little about the aerial world so you can get to know better the animals that fly and their characteristics with several examples, including those that have wings but cannot fly and we are also going to talk a little about waterfowl. Check out!

animals that fly

Light bones, strong legs and specially shaped wings. Bird bodies are made to fly. Simply going up or down through the skies helps birds to flee from their predators and also makes them better hunters. It is through flying that they are able to migrate, traveling long distances from cold to warm places.


A bird uses its legs to push the ground into the air, this is called a push. Afterwards, it flaps its wings to rise and the union of these actions is the well-known flight. But they don't always need to flap their wings to fly. Once high in the sky, they too can soar.

But birds aren't the only ones flying animals, contrary to what many people think. Take the bat, for example, a mammal, and insects. And do all birds fly? The answer to this question is no, as we can see with the ostrich, the rhea and the penguin, that even with wings, they do not use them for movement.

On the other hand, the animal that moves through the air is not always an animal that flies. Many people confuse animals that can glide with those that can fly. Flying animals use their wings to soar and descend through the skies, while those that can soar simply use the wind to stay aloft.


You gliding animals are considered aerial animals, but not flying animals. To stay aloft, they use their small, light bodies and a very thin skin membrane that binds their limbs together. Thus, when jumping, they stretch their limbs and use their membrane to glide. Among the gliding animals we find both mammals and reptiles. In the article Aerial animals - Examples and characteristics you can check the differences between flying and aerial animals.

Thus, it is worth noting that the only animals that can actually fly are birds, insects and bats.

We will see below a list of 10 flying animal examples:

European Bee (Apis mellifera)

It is a medium sized (12-13mm) very agile social bee that has the ability to visit around 10 flowers per minute to collect pollen and nectar, and in some cases to pollinate them.


Iberian Imperial Eagle (Aquila Adalberti)

The Imperial Iberian Eagle has an average size of 80 cm and a wingspan of up to 2.10 m, weighing up to 3 kg.

White Stork (ciconia ciconia)

The stork has strong pectoral muscles, enabling flight in high altitudes.

Dark-winged Gull (larus fucus)

Measures around 52-64 cm. The adult gull has dark gray wings and back, white head and belly, and yellow legs.

Common Pigeon (Columba livia)

The pigeon has about 70cm of wing span and 29 to 37 cm in length, weighing between 238 and 380g.

Orange Dragonfly (pantala flavescens)

This type of dragonfly is considered the migratory insect that roams the farthest distance among those that can fly, it can exceed 18,000 km.

Andes Condor (vultur gryphus)

The condor is one of the biggest flying birds in the world and it has the third largest wingspan, with 3.3 meters (losing only to the Marabou and the Wandering Albatross). It can weigh up to 14 kilos and fly up to 300 km a day.

Hummingbird (Amazilia versicolor)

Some species of hummingbirds even flap their wings up to 80 times a second.

Wooly bat (Myotis emarginatus)

This one flying mammal is a medium-small in size bat that has large ears and muzzle. Its coat has a reddish-blond color on the back and lighter on the belly. They weigh between 5.5 and 11.5 grams.

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.

birds that do not fly

There are numerous flightless birds. For different adaptive reasons, some species were, little by little, putting aside their ability to fly during their evolution. One of the reasons that motivated several species to abandon their ability to fly was the absence of predators in the middle.

Many species have developed a larger size than they used to be so that they can more easily capture their prey. With a larger size, there is more weight, so flying has become a complicated task for these birds. This is not to say that all non-flying birds in the world are large, as there are some small.

The flightless birds or also known as ratite birds have some similarities to each other: normally, the bodies are adapted for running and swimming. Also, the wing bones are smaller, massive and heavier than in flying birds. And finally, flightless birds do not have a keel in their chest, a bone into which the muscles that allow flying birds to flap their wings are inserted.

To better understand these birds, you can read the article Flightless Birds - Characteristics and 10 examples. In it you will meet some of them, such as the ostrich, the penguin and the titicada grebe.

Animals that seem to fly but only glide

Some animals have the amazing ability to glide or take long jumps, which makes them look like flying animals. Some even have the word "flyer" in their name, but it must be made clear that no, they don't actually fly. here are some examples:

Colugo (Cynocephalus volans)

These tree gliders are sometimes called flying lemurs, but they are not true lemurs nor do they fly. Mammals of the genus Cynocephalus, are native to Southeast Asia and are approximately the size of a domestic cat. They have a skin membrane that covers the entire body, measuring about 40 cm, which gives them the ability to glide for up to 70 meters between trees, losing little altitude.

Flying fish (Exocoetus volitans)

It is a kind of salt water and has very developed pectoral fins, which allows it to swim at high speed to escape predators. Some fish can jump out of the water for up to 45 seconds and travel up to 180 meters in a single thrust.

Flying squirrel (Pteromyini)

The flying squirrel is native to North America and Eurasia and has nocturnal habits. Through the membrane that joins the front and back legs, it can glide between trees. O flight is directed by flat tail, which works as a rudder.

Flying Dragon (Draco volans)

Of Asian origin, this lizard can unfold the skin of its body and form a kind of wing, which it uses to glide between trees for distances of up to eight meters.

Manta (Birostris blanket)

The flying ray appears to be a fish that can reach seven meters in wingspan and weigh more than a ton, which does not prevent it from taking great leaps out of the water, which resemble real flights.

Wallace Flying Toad (Rhacophorus nigropalmatus)

With long limbs and a membrane joining the fingers and toes, this frog turns into a parachute when you need to get down from the tallest trees.

Flying Snake (Chrysopelea paradise)

The Paradise Tree Snake lives in the rainforests of Southeast Asia. It slides from the treetops flattening its body to maximize the surface, shaking from side to side to go in the desired direction. They are able to travel in air distances of more than 100 meters, making 90 degree turns during the trajectory.

Opossum Glider (Acrobatus pygmaeus)

The small glider possum, only 6.5 centimeters in length and 10 grams in weight, can jump and glide in the air for up to 25 meters. For this, it uses the membrane between the fingers and the long tail that controls the direction.

water birds

Aquatic bird is a bird that ecologically depends on wetlands for its housing, reproduction or feeding. They not necessarily swim. They can be classified into two types: dependent and semi-dependent.

Dependent birds spend little time in dry places, and spend most of their lives in wet areas.The semi-dependent ones are those that even manage to spend a lot of time in dry areas, but their beak, feet and legs morphological characteristics are the result of a long process of adaptation to wet areas.

Between the water birds there are the stork, the duck, the swan, the flamingo, the goose, the duck, the seagull and the pelican.

Does the swan fly?

There are many questions about the swan's ability to fly. But the answer is simple: yes, swan fly. With aquatic habits, the swans are distributed in several areas of America, Europe and Asia. Although most of the existing species have white plumage, there are also some that have black plumage.

Like ducks, swans fly and have migratory habits, as they move to warmer areas when winter comes.

And if you like the world of birds, the video below, about the smartest parrot in the world, might also interest you:

If you want to read more articles similar to Flying animals: characteristics and curiosities, we recommend that you enter our Curiosities section of the animal world.