Flying Patterns of Birds

Greetings from the world's most ill-informed birder. Here, I share notes on flying patterns of different types of birds. An earlier post discussed Birding with Descriptive Placeholders.

The most understandable flying pattern is that of the pigeons- they make their mind as they fly. Your friendly neighborhood pigeon will flap its wings a few times going in one direction, then abruptly turn into another, then stop flapping for a while, then start flapping furiously.

An Egret has a different style. It is as if it has meticulously calculated where exactly it wants to reach in how many hours. It just goes on flying in a straight line, flapping wings at a fixed rate, neither too fast nor too slow, a missionary fully focused on its task.

Babblers do not seem to like flying. For them, flying is a painful burden. They fly in an unsteady manner, as if they are yet to get the hang of it.

Parrots shriek as they fly, drawing your attention. Most birds however keep quiet while flying, conserving energy.

If the bird is flying at a distance, it can be somewhat difficult to identify it. However, you can easily identify an Eagle irrespective of how far it is flying. Nothing flies like eagle. The first thing you notice in a flying eagle is that it is not even flapping its wings. Like an implacable despot looking for a victim, the eagle glides in circles  with its huge wings spread motionless. Once in a while, there is a slight movement in one of the wings, as the eerily menacing bird shifts from circling over your head to circling over someone else's head. Then you can breathe.