How come a bird cant fly backwards?
490853
who says they cant for sure? maybe theyve never though of it. lol. unless its scientifically proven whose to say they cant for sure?
65882
Humming bird  flies in both the directions -- backwards as well forward
47938
The first answer is correct. I think for the second answer, the questioner would probably be wondering...well, if the helicopter takes off with the same velocity as the earth, since the heli is now hovering and the earth keeps on turning, why doesn't the earth spin past the helicopter...\n\nAnd that is simply because the atmosphere is turning around with the heli, like the first answer stated.\n\nJust wanted to elaborate with another example. A fly takes off from the dashboard of a speeding car with its windows closed. Does the fly stay in air or, since the fly is now seperated from the car, does the car rush forward, making it seem like the fly is hurtled to the back of the car?\n\nEven in this case, the air inside the car is being brought along with the car at the same speed. Therefore, the speed of the fly relative to the car will always be 0.
684200
i didnt know chickens could fly.
143334
i think its because of the air pressure. the air drags the feather up? i think
272410
Their beaks are made in a way to scoop water up so they can swallow it. they are not able ro suck up water, so they have to lift their heads up to the sky for the water to go down their throats.\n\nP.s. it's not just chickens but most birds do it.
656671
I used to own chickens and roosters. Neither can fly not even a few meters. They are able to jump/flight to there perch and thats about it.\n\nWing to body size ratio prevents their flight.
426165
Birds could fly with only 1 wing if if was "falling" in one direction, if not, then it can not fly. \nHuman Nature, people always want to be better than each other
302547
When a vehicle accelerates forward, there is inertia that holds us back until we compensate for it.  The air in the bus also moves forward because it is contained and restrained by the walls, roof, floor, and windows.  The air that the bug is flying in is also first compressed in a backward motion and then stabilized.  Its a good thing, else when the bus moved forward if all the air pooled on the back window then the driver and everyone up front couldn't breathe.  Just as that air exerts an outward pressure upon itself and everything else (if there were no pressure, there would be no wind resistance) that keeps it from collapsing at the back of the bus when it moves forward, the bug continues flying by the same aerodynamics that permits it to fly in the first place.
1018059
For a while, humans had a firm grip on the aerodynamics of fixed wing flight, and found that those rules didn't correctly explain the aerodynamics of moving bumblebee wings.\n\nNone of which menas that our understanding of flixed wing flight was hopelessly flawed, or that bumblebees fly with the help of tiny angels, or anything like that.  It just means that you can't accurataly understand a phenomena by applying inapplicable theories to it.  \n\nNow , we know the aerodynamics of bumblebees better; specifically, we know the aerodynamics of the small vortices created by insect wings better, so that I believe we do now have accurate hypotheses to apply to bumblebees flight.
63919
Because of the way their legs are built.\nThe tendons in bird's legs are arranged as a pulley-rope system so that the weight of the animal pulls on these tendons and keeps their fingers closed at rest. Thus they do not require voluntary muscle action to maintain their grasp on branches.\nThis is specially characteristic of songbirds. Others may rely on nests, platforms or other types of dwellings
1077367
An aircraft flies due to aerodynamic reactions that happen when there is relative motion between air and a wing.\n\nIf a cross-section of a typical aircraft wing is viewed, the top of the wing can be seen to be curved downwards, while the bottom of the wing is less curved or straight, but angled to the airflow. This shape, called an airfoil or aerofoil, creates lift when it travels through the air. However, this optimisation is not applicable for aerobatic aircraft, which need to fly inverted, or for supersonic aircraft.\n\nLift is created as an airstream passes by something which deflects it. The force created by this deflection of the air creates an equal and opposite force on the wing according to Newton's third law of motion. The deflection of airflow downward during the creation of lift is known as downwash.\n\nNearly any shape will produce lift if curved or tilted with respect to the air flow direction. However, most shapes will be very inefficient and create too much drag. One of the primary goals of wing design is to devise a shape that produces the most lift while producing the least lift-induced drag.
707767
Mathematically it is impossible for a honey bee's wings to support it in flight.\nThe praying mantis is the only insect that can turn it's head.\nScientists still do not know how a cat purrs or where in it's body the noise comes from.
256669
Because they are not connected to the ground.\n\nElecticity is always trying to move to a ground state, where it experiances least resistance, but it needs a route to get there. As the Birds on the Wire arn't connected to the ground the Electricity has no route to get there and won't travel through the bird/squirrel
284184
Geese fly in a "V" formation for air resistance and to enable the other geese to follow in the "drag" created by the geese in front of a particular goose except the one in the lead. There is turbulence in the air currents made by each goose.\nThe lead goose encounters the most air resistance. They trade off leaders on occasion.\nThe reason one side of the formation is longer than the other is that there is usually an odd number of geese in the formation or that the air resistance and turbulence is less on one side or the other.
144449
you could flap your arms all day long a (BMPH) Billion Miles Per hour.heheh And you never get lift. See to under stand how birds fly you have to understand a birds body. First off a birds bones are hollow. Meaning less weight. Secondly the birds wings are shaped like a windfoil which gives lift. to explan how a wing works we will go into alittle physics of flight. To understand flight you have to understand how the wing is designed. \n\nfirst take a peice of postit note from one of the 5x3 inch pads. you need a pensile. bring the bottom side of the post it note to the top side where it is sticky. stick it together. Now you have a piece of paper simular to a tear drop. what you going to do is run the pencle between the opening to the other side. let the pice of paper float freely. hold the pencile with both hands one on one side of the paper and the other on the other side of the paper. Not put the not about 5 inches in front of your mouth and blow. Notice what happens the paper lifts. This is what is called lift. This is how birds fly. basicly when you blow on the paper the under side high presure goes under and low presure goes over the top. We will call it a win for now. But pending on how the wind is hitting it will depend on what direction the wing will go. If the tail end is faced up then the wing will go down it it's faced down the wing will go up. When it goes up that is called lift. and thats how birds fly.
406248
Hummingbirds can fly right, left, up, down, backwards, even upside down due to their special wings. Hummingbirds are also able to hover by flapping their wings in a figure - 8 pattern.   http://www.kidsplanet.org/factsheets/hummingbirds.html