The Bird Site: Flight

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As with an airplane, four main forces affect the flight of a bird: lift, drag, thrust, and the downward pull
of gravity. To overcome gravity, birds must generate lift, the force that takes them upward. Air flowing
over and under their specially-formed wing creates lift, but the airflow also pushes the wing back with a
force called drag. When lift and drag are combined, an upward and backward force results. To overcome
this, birds creates thrust by flapping their wings to move themselves forward.
HOW DOES A WING WORK?
A bird wing is very stream-lined, tapering from a thick, rounded leading edge to a thin point at the
trailing edge. Because the wing is concavely curved, air traveling over the upper surface has to cover a
greater distance and moves faster to catch up with air taking the shorter bottom route from the front to
the back of the wing. This fast-moving air creates a low pressure zone along the upper surface of the
wing. With low pressure above and higher pressure below, the wing is "sucked" up.

WING SHAPE AND USE

Birds with different types of flight have wings that are shaped very differently.
Many seabirds, like albatrosses, have long, narrow pointed wings
for gliding long distances over the ocean into the ocean winds.
The length generates lots of lift, while the narrow, pointed shape
helps reduce drag while gliding.
Long, broad eagle wings have a large surface area for soaring on
rising warm air currents. The spaces between the feathers at the
end of the wing help reduce drag and are used for fine control at
slow speeds. Storks, pelicans, and hawks have wings similar in
shape.
Short rounded wings allow pheasants rapid takeoffs, good
maneuverability, and short glides. Many forest birds have small
rounded wings that are good for quick, sharp turns while flying
among trees.
Similar to a high speed jet, swallows have relatively small,
narrow, tapering wings. These wings can be flapped rapidly to
provide speed with little drag. The fastest flyers in the bird world,
falcons and swifts, have wings of this shape.
FLIGHT MOTION

http://www.nhm.org/birds/guide/pg018.html

07/03/2007

The Bird Site: Flight

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Birds fly by flapping or gliding. Flapping takes

tremendous energy, so many birds, such as jays
and woodpeckers, follow bursts of flapping
flight with gliding flight. Some larger birds
have developed wings that let them soar and
glide for long periods without flapping.
Hummingbirds, with their tiny wings, can
hardly glide at all.
On the upstroke of the wing beat, the feathers at
the end of many bird wings twist sideways to let
the air slip through with little resistance. The
down stroke is the power stroke. Rather than
rowing a bird through the air, the wings act like the propeller on an airplane to pull the bird forward.
Darting from flower to flower, hummingbirds fly like tiny helicopters. They can
hover or quickly move forward, backward, sideways, straight up or straight down.
Some hummingbirds flap their wings as many as 100 times per second to
accomplish these maneuvers. Their unique shoulder joints also turn the wings
upside down on the backstroke, enabling the wing's path follows a figure-8
pattern.

Classroom Activities:
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Bird's Eye Story

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07/03/2007