Flying and Gliding Animals

flight · movement · animal adaptations · air

Bats are masters. Bats are the only mammals that can truly fly with wings made of skin stretched between their fingers. They use echolocation to navigate and hunt in the dark.

Birds evolved wings. Birds have hollow bones and powerful chest muscles that let them flap their wings to push themselves up and forward through the air.

Some insects glide. Flying fish, flying squirrels, and flying lizards don't actually fly like birds do. Instead, they jump or leap and stretch special flaps or skin to glide long distances before landing.

Spiders use air. Baby spiders spin tiny silk threads and release them into the wind to drift through the air to new places. This amazing trick is called ballooning.

Lift beats gravity. All flying animals have special body parts that push or spin through air to create lift, which is an upward force strong enough to carry them up and over their own weight.