How do birds fly?

You jump as high as you can, but you always come back down. A bird just flaps and floats up into the sky. How does it do that?

A body built to be light

A bird is full of clever tricks. Its bones are not solid like ours — they are thin and hollow inside, like little straws. That makes the whole bird very light, so it is easier to lift into the air.

A bird also has big, strong chest muscles. These pull its wings down hard, again and again, which gives it the power to take off.

Wings that push the air

A bird’s wings are covered in feathers, and they are a special curved shape. When a bird flaps, its wings push the air down and back. Pushing the air down lifts the bird up, and pushing it back sends the bird forward.

The faster it flaps, the higher it can climb!

Flapping and gliding

Flapping is hard work, so birds rest too. When a bird wants a break, it holds its wings out wide and stiff and just glides, like a paper plane drifting on the wind. Some big birds can glide for a long, long time without a single flap.

Wonder fact: A tiny hummingbird flaps its wings about 50 times every second — so fast that its wings make a humming sound!