page_title: Bird flight
section_title: References
hierarchical_section_title: Bird flight / References
context_page_description: Flight is a method of moving through the air. To do this, birds use wings with light, hollow bones and feathers on them. Birds have a streamlined body shape, so that they slip through air more easily.
  Birds can move by flapping their wings, or they can stay in the same place. This is called hovering, with rapid wing beats, as with the kestrel. Birds that soar use very little energy for it: they use columns of rising hot air to lift them. They glide from the top of a warm air current, and then move on to another warm air current. That way birds like buzzards can fly all day while using little energy.
  Birds like hawks and gannets dive on their prey. They get to a height, them fold their wings and dive head-first.
context_section_description: Videler J.J. 2005. Avian flight. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-856603-4
caption: Wing shapes determine flight style