I saw a video of a bird flying in the air but its wings were not flapping and it seemed to be just hovering. How does it maintain its height in the air?
Tagged this as physics as I believe it has something to do with the air movement.
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Soaring. Many large birds such as eagles and storks have long, broad wings, with a big surface area. This helps them catch rising currents of warm air, called thermals, which lift the bird up without any need for flapping.
Lift can be generated whether the wing is moving through the air or by air moving around a stationary wing.
A cool thing to do to see this is watch pelicans along the ocean. Temperature differences between the ground and the ocean cause breezes. Pelicans will just angle into that breeze and just balance lift and gravity and thrust and drag. Poetry.
I usually hum Ride of the Valkyries while I’m watching them.
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