Animals That Fly (1961)

when we look at a fly's Wing we can see through the clear membrane the tiny veins in a fly's Wing help to strengthen it a few insects like butterflies and moths have wings that are large in relation to the size of their bodies the wings of these insects have an extra outside covering over the clear membrane of the wing if we look at a butterfly's wing through a mic we can see that this covering is made of many tiny scales the scales overlap each other like shingles on a roof most of the flying insects have two pairs of wings on a dragonfly the two pairs of wings are arranged one in front of the other on moths and butterflies the two pairs of wings overlap each other and on Beatles like this lady bird one pair of wings is hard the hard pair is on top and protects the bottom pair of wings here is a diagram that will show how an insect flies when an insect makes its body flatter the wings move up when the insect makes its body narrower again the wings move down muscles change the shape of an insect's body much as muscles change the shape of your body when you breathe in and out many flying insects like bees move their wings very fast and are able to maneuver quickly these insects move their wings so fast they make a sound we can hear but we cannot hear most moths or butterflies move their wings insects with large Wings usually move their Wings slowly and travel from place to place in a leisurely manner so the largest group of animals that fly is the flying insects flying insects have thin Wings which they move by changing the shape of their bodies and most flying insects have two pairs of wings to enable them to move through the air the next largest group of animals that fly is the birds [Music] all flying birds have strong Wings made of bone and muscle each Wing is covered the overlapping feathers grow from the bird if we look at a feather closely we can see that it is made of many little Parts which cling to each other the parts of a Feather are like the parts of a zipper when they are separated we can see how they hook together when a bird's feathers become separated the bird hooks them together again with its bill this is called creaming a bird cannot fly well unless the parts of its feathers are hooked together properly in this diagram we will see how birds move their wings a bird moves its wings with powerful muscles that are attached directly to the bones one set of muscles moves the wings down other muscles move the wings up a bird's Wing is much like your arm and the bird moves its wings in much the same way you move your arms most birds like these JS have short stubby Wings they move their wings quickly as they Dart and Dodge and hop about looking for food birds with longer wings like these guts can hover and glide on updrafts of air ganet often use their long slender Wings to carry them to Great Heights from which they dive into the sea for food large broad wings like those of this Hawk enable some birds to Circle gracefully for hours without moving their wings at all so the second largest group of animals that fly is the birds flying birds have strong wings which they move with powerful muscles each bird wing is covered with many overlapping feathers the third and last group of animals that fly is the bats a bat is a small furry animal most bats live in caves where they sleep during the daytime a bat's Wing is similar to your hand the bones and muscles are covered with skin the long bones of the wing are like the four long fingers of a hand the small thumb is very short muscles attached to the long finger bone move the bat's Wings up and down when it flies in some places thousands of bats may be seen leaving their caves in the evening bats eat insects and are an aid to man so all the animals that fly have wings they move up and down the flying insects have wings of thin membrane which they move by changing the shape of their bodies the flying birds have strong Wings covered with feathers they move their wings with powerful muscles much as you move your arms the bats have wings covered with skin which they move your hands of all the animals on Earth Earth only insects birds and bats are able to fly on moving waves [Music]