Christina Harvey uses wind tunnels at the UC Davis College of Engineering to study bird flight. Harvey is the recipient of a 2023 Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering. (UC Davis photo) ...

Modern birds capable of flight all have a specialized wing structure called the propatagium without which they could not fly. The evolutionary origin of this structure has remained a mystery, but new ...

The Wright Brothers studied bird flight before they designed the first airplane. Now modern aircraft fly higher and faster than any bird, yet no manufactured device matches the graceful movements and ...

While it had been assumed that unstable gliding was the key to agility in bird flight, a collaboration between aerospace engineers and biologists has revealed that stability plays a role. While it had ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. Most bird species don’t fly above a few thousand feet in ...

Slow-motion footage of baby birds helps scientists uncover how their ancestors took to the skies. Birds today make flight look effortless, but its evolution was complex. Scientists are still trying to ...

In a rectangular room draped in camouflage netting, four Harris’s hawks took turns flying back and forth between grass-covered perches while scientists recorded their every biomechanical flutter. The ...