Flight is one of the ways animals travel, but not everyone can. To fly, it is necessary to have physical characteristics that allow flying. Humans, through aerial animal observation, have taken centuries to create a flying machine, for example, like a bird.
Only a few groups of animals have the real ability to fly, however, if you look at it from the point of view of the number of species, most of the animal species that exist on the planet fly: insects. In this peritoAnimal article, you’ll discover aerial animals, their characteristics and some examples of flying animals.
- In general.
- Flying animals and aerial animals are synonymous.
- Although there are exceptions that we will show throughout the article where “flying” and “air” do not mean the same.
- In addition.
- Aerial animals are those that use flight as a locomotion mechanism.
- For some animals.
- It’s the only way to get around.
- But many others use it as an escape route in the presence of a predator.
Some animals spend most of their lives flying, performing all their vital functions in the air: eating, interacting with their environment and their fellows, or reproducing. For them, stealing is essential to making a living. Other animals only acquire the ability to fly when they reach adulthood. Some species can fly long distances, such as migratory animals, while others only need to fly small distances.
Each animal species or group of animals has a different mechanic to move using flight, so they will have different but similar characteristics, since the ultimate goal is the same: fly.
This is the exception we mentioned in the previous section, where “air” and “flying” are not used as synonyms. Pets that glide are considered aerial animals, but not in flight. That’s because they can’t fly, but they travel through the air. To do this, these animals have small, light bodies and a very thin skin membrane that binds their limbs. Then, when jumping, they stretch their limbs and use this membrane to slide. In this group we find both mammals and reptiles.
Each species of flying animal has its own way of flying, depending on its physical characteristics, but most of these animals must have a number of common attributes that allow flying:
There are several types of aerial animals, depending on the edge to which they belong. Then we have the following types of flying animals:
As mentioned, the vast majority of birds are aerial animals. A very clear example is the martinets. These animals, after leaving the nest, spend their entire lives in the air. They feed by opening their beaks and hunting mosquitoes, courting their companions in flight and even copulating in the air.
Other examples of aerial animals include
Although the ones we mentioned above are the aerial animals that we can most often see in our daily life, there are many flying species. Here’s a complete list of some of them:
To learn more about some of these aerial animals and see their photos, in the following sections we show 10 birds and flying insects.
The Arctic tern is a small bird (25-40 cm) that is distinguished by its migratory journeys, traveling from the Arctic to Antarctica and thus covering more than 40,000 km.
Pink flamingo is one of the best known migratory birds in the world, as they are animals that fly long distances. Travel according to food availability and can travel from West Africa to the Mediterranean.
If you would like to read articles similar to, we recommend that you visit our Curiosities section of the animal world.