concept

Thermal soaring

A way of flying that exploits columns of rising warm air — "thermals," formed where the ground heats unevenly — to gain height with almost no flapping. The animal circles inside a rising column, letting the updraft carry it up, then glides off to the next thermal. It is the strategy of Earth's largest fliers, such as Argentavis, because at giant size continuous flapping is metabolically impossible. The powerful updrafts around Pandora's floating mountains are an ideal soaring engine.