We’ve watched birds fly across the sky, but it’s a rare opportunity to compare one bird’s aerodynamic prowess to another’s. How do they take off and land? How do they move across long distances, or even stay in the air in the first place?

Animators often study these movements in order to depict them with some realism onscreen. In Bird Flight for Animators, VFX artist Stephen Cunnane showcases this process through avian silhouettes. Watch them take off, fly, hover, fly faster, glide, land, bound and soar.

Next, watch the physics of why birds fly in V-formation, Like Feathered Fighter Jets: Peregrine Falcons, hummingbirds fly, shake, and drink in slow motion, and Starling murmuration, a stunning clip from Jan van Ijken’s ‘The Art of Flying’.

via The Curious Brain.