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How do bats fly differently from birds?
While both birds and bats fly by flapping wings in a down-and-forward way to generate lift, the main difference comes from the bat's use of additional 'fingers'. The wings of a bird are comprised of enlongated arms with a single finger on the end. Meanwhile, bats have 3 fingers over which the skin is stretched. This allows a bat to have a better range of motion in its flying. They also have tons of hyper-sensitve hairs that help them detect small changes in air currents and breezes. Combine that with the fact that bat wings don't have to open the same amount on each side, thanks to the additional fingers, bats are much better at manuvering and acrobatic feats. However, because of how they evolved, very few bats are able to walk or take off from the ground. To learn more about the difference I recommend checking out this article.
