History Main / GiantFlyer

* The extinct bird species, ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentavis Argentavis]]'', had a wingspan of up to 5-6 meters (16-19 feet), and for a while it was considered the largest flying bird of all time. That record was broken with the discovery of another extinct bird, ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelagornis Pelagornis]]'', which had a wingspan of about 6-7 meters (19-22 feet).

* For a more recently extinct animal, one that humans interacted with, there's always the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haast%27s_Eagle Haast's Eagle]] of New Zealand, at about 3 meters (10 feet). It primarily hunted the various species of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moa Moa]] that were also native to New Zealand, the largest of which ranged up to 15 times its weight. The Haast's Eagle lived up until a few hundred years ago, when overhunting of its food supply by the Māori eventually drove the eagle into extinction. [[note]] Māori mythology mentions a monstrous bird similar to the Haast's Eagle, claiming that it hunted and ate humans. The legend most likely originated from tales of competition between the early Māori and the eagles for hunting Moa. It also may originate from stories of the eagles mistaking feather wearing Māori for Moa.[[/note]]

* Rounding out the extinct animals, we have ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meganeura Meganeura]]''. With a wingspan of about 70 centimeters (27 inches), it sounds puny compared to most of the animals listed here, until you find out that it was an ''[[BigCreepyCrawlies insect]]'', specifically a relative of modern dragonflies, that existed in the Carboniferous period.
** The distant relative of ''Meganuera'' that existed in the Early Permian period may have been even larger. With a wingspan of about 75 centimeters (30 inches), ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meganeuropsis Meganeuropsis]]'' currently holds the record of being the largest flying insect that ever existed.

* Rounding out the extinct animals, we have ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meganeura Meganeura]]''. With a wingspan of about 70 centimeters (27 inches), it sounds puny compared to most of the animals listed here, until you find out that it was a ''[[DreadfulDragonfly Giant Griffenfly]]'' [[note]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meganisoptera Griffenflies]] are an extinct insect group related to modern Dragonflies and Damselflies.[[/note]] that existed in the Carboniferous period and was one of the largest flying insects of all time.
** The distant relative of ''Meganuera'' that existed in the Early Permian period was even larger. With a wingspan of about 75 centimeters (30 inches), ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meganeuropsis Meganeuropsis]]'' currently holds the record of being the largest flying insect that ever existed.

* There are multiple species of still living birds with large wingspans including: the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wandering_albatross Snowy Albatross]] (3.6 metres/11.5 feet),[[note]] Formerly known as the Wandering Albatross.[[/note]] the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steller%27s_sea_eagle Stellar's Sea Eagle]] (2.7 meters/8.6 feet), the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_condor California Condor]] (2.8 meters/8.9 feet), the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinereous_vulture Cinereous Vulture]] (3.1 meters/9.9 feet), the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andean_condor Andean Condor]] (3.3 meters/10.5 feet), the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marabou_stork Marabou Stork]] (3.7 meters/12 feet), the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_white_pelican Great White Pelican]] (3.5 meters/11 feet), the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_royal_albatross Southern Royal Albatross]] (3.6 meters/11.5 feet), and the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabiru Jabiru Stork]] (2.8 meters/9.2 feet).

In RealLife, the largest flying birds are limited by the manner in which avian flight feathers grow, and historically have never been much bigger than even modern condors and albatrosses (wingspan about 3.5m/11.4ft) with the exception of the condor-like ''Argentavis'' and the seagoing ''Pelagornis sandersi'' (both with wingspans perhaps up to 7m/23ft). Pterosaurs evolved to be much larger, but then anything bigger than a ''Quetzalcoatlus'' (wingspan about 10m/32ft) is running up against the SquareCubeLaw -- it gets ''really'' difficult to take off, since the wings become too heavy to overcome their own weight, let alone the rest of the body. The largest bird species generally spend most of their flight time gliding rather than flying, and prefer to land on a high point rather than the ground, as they tend to need a downward dive at the beginning of a flight to build up momentum. In fiction, if any effort is made at all to explain why an overly large flying creature can exist, the go-to explanations are low-gravity planets and [[HandWave magic]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuersDownUnder'': In a case of ArtisticLicenseOrnithology, Marahute the Great Golden Eagle is ''enormous'', significantly bigger than any eagle in real life, golden or otherwise. She is large enough to effortlessly carry a 10 year old boy on her back, ''comfortably'', and still fly gracefully through the air. She dwarfs ''any'' living real life bird whether or not they can fly, and even dwarfs most extinct birds that were capable of flight. [[note]]Such as the Haast's eagle, Argentavis, the pelagornithids, etc[[/note]]

* Rounding out the extinct animals, we have ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meganeura Meganeura]]''. With a wingspan of about 70 centimeters (27 inches), it sounds puny compared to most of the animals listed here, until you find out that it was a ''[[DreadfulDragonfly Giant Griffenfly]]'' [[note]] Griffenflies are an extinct insect group related to modern Dragonflies and Damselflies.[[/note]] that existed in the Carboniferous period and was one of the largest flying insects of all time.

* Rounding out the extinct animals, we have ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meganeura Meganeura]]''. With a wingspan of about 70 centimeters (27 inches), it sounds puny compared to most of the animals listed here, until you find out that it was a ''[[DreadfulDragonfly Giant Dragonfly]]'' that existed in the Carboniferous period and was one of the largest flying insects to ever exist.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuersDownUnder'': In a case of ArtisticLicenseOrnithology, Marahute the Great Golden Eagle is ''enormous'', significantly bigger than any eagle in real life, golden or otherwise. She is large enough to effortlessly carry a 10 year old boy on her back, ''comfortably'', and still fly gracefully through the air. She dwarfs ''any'' living real life bird whether or not they can fly, and even dwarfs most extinct birds that were capable of flight. [[note]]Such as the Haast's eagle, Argentavis, the pelagornithids, etc[[/note]] Only a handful of truly-gigantic extinct flightless birds would be bigger.

* For a more recently extinct animal, one that humans probably did interact with, there's always the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haast%27s_Eagle Haast's Eagle]] of New Zealand, at about 3 meters (10 feet). They hunted moa, which ranged up to 15 times their weight (and are also ''bigger than humans''), and lived up until a few hundred years ago.
** It has been noted that, based on puncture marks found on moa pelvises, the Haast's Eagle was probably a fairly specialized hunter of the same. Moa were big, feathered bipeds. The earliest Maori colonists were most likely wearing feather cloaks same as they do now. This might have caused... issues. In the end, human overhunting of its food supply drove the eagle into extinction.

* There are multiple species of still living birds with large wingspans including: the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wandering_albatross Snowy Albatross]] (3.6 metres/11.5 feet),[[note]] Formerly known as the Wandering Albatross. Has since been reclassified[[/note]] the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steller%27s_sea_eagle Stellar's Sea Eagle]] (2.7 meters/8.6 feet), the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_condor California Condor]] (2.8 meters/8.9 feet), the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinereous_vulture Cinereous Vulture]] (3.1 meters/9.9 feet), the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andean_condor Andean Condor]] (3.3 meters/10.5 feet), the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marabou_stork Marabou Stork]] (3.7 meters/12 feet), the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_white_pelican Great White Pelican]] (3.5 meters/11 feet), the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_royal_albatross Southern Royal Albatross]] (3.6 meters/11.5 feet), and the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabiru Jabiru Stork]] (2.8 meters/9.2 feet).

* The genus of pterosaur known as ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quetzalcoatlus_northropi Quetzalcoatlus]]'' (where "quetzalcoatl" is Aztec for "feathered snake" and was the name of a major god) had a wingspan of 10-11 metres (32-35 feet) and was as tall as a giraffe.
** ''Quetzalcoatlus'' has a Romanian cousin named ''Hatzegopteryx'', which may have been even ''bigger'' than its American counterpart; one of the most common estimates is that the creature had a whopping 12-metre (38 feet) wingspan. That said, some have theorized that ''Hatzegopteryx'' and ''Quetzalcoatlus'' were actually the same species, although later findings suggest that this isn't the case (the two animals had a lot in common, but there are enough differences between them to suggest that they're separate species). These differences include the fact the European version had a much shorter, much thicker neck and was built to kill much larger prey (namely cow-sized dwarf sauropods), being the unrivalled apex predator of the area.

* '''Leathery Winged Avians''': (Never mind the fact that many of them are [[GoodWingsEvilWings feathery winged]] instead.) These Giant Flyers will act much like the first type, but will do so on the local BigBad's account, and will often look uglier or more monstrous than the "natural" kind to reflect this. They may either attack the heroes on their lonesome, serve as steeds for the Big Bad's servants, or both. The name was coined by Creator/DianaWynneJones' in ''Literature/TheToughGuideToFantasyland''.

* There are multiple species of still living birds with large wingspans including: the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wandering_albatross Wandering Albatross]] (3.6 metres/11.5 feet), the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steller%27s_sea_eagle Stellar's Sea Eagle]] (2.7 meters/8.6 feet), the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_condor California Condor]] (2.8 meters/8.9 feet), the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinereous_vulture Cinereous Vulture]] (3.1 meters/9.9 feet), the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andean_condor Andean Condor]] (3.3 meters/10.5 feet), the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marabou_stork Marabou Stork]] (3.7 meters/12 feet), the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_white_pelican Great White Pelican]] (3.5 meters/11 feet), the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_royal_albatross Southern Royal Albatross]] (3.6 meters/11.5 feet), and the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabiru Jabiru Stork]] (2.8 meters/9.2 feet).
* Due to their lack of hollow bones and air sacs, bats are more limited in size than birds and pterosaurs. However, some species of bats can get pretty big, which is why they are commonly known to as Megabats. The largest Megabats are those belonging to the genus, ''Pteropus'', which are commonly referred to as flying foxes due to the shape of their heads resembling that of a fox. A good example is the ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey-headed_flying_fox Grey-Headed Flying Fox]]'' native to Australia that has a wingspan of about 3.3 feet (1 meter). The largest extant bat in the world is the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_golden-crowned_flying_fox Golden-Crowned Flying Fox]] native to the Philippines which can reach wingspans of up to 5.5 feet (1.7 meters).

* ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuersDownUnder'': In a case of ArtisticLicenseOrnithology, Marahute the Great Golden Eagle is ''enormous'', significantly bigger than any eagle in real life, golden or otherwise. She is large enough to effortlessly carry a 10 year old boy on her back, ''comfortably'', and still fly gracefully through the air. She dwarfs ''any'' living real life bird whether or not they can fly, even most extinct birds[[note]]Haast's eagle, Argentavis, the pelagornithids, etc[[/note]]. Only a handful of truly-gigantic extinct flightless birds would be bigger.

* Due to their lack of hollow bones and air sacs, bats are more limited in size than birds and pterosaurs. However, some species of bats can get pretty big, which is why they are referred to as Megabats. The largest Megabats are those belonging to the genus ''Pteropus''. They are commonly known as flying foxes due to the shape of their heads resembling that of a fox, combined with their large size relative to most bat species. A good example is the ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey-headed_flying_fox Grey-Headed Flying Fox]]'' native to Australia that has a wingspan of about 3.3 feet (1 meter). The largest extant bat in the world is the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_golden-crowned_flying_fox Golden-Crowned Flying Fox]] native to the Philippines which can reach wingspans of up to 5.5 feet (1.7 meters).

* ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuersDownUnder'': In a case of ArtisticLicenseOrnithology, Marachute the Golden Eagle is significantly bigger than any normal golden eagle in real life, as she is large enough to carry a small 10 year old boy on her back and still fly gracefully through the air. She is so large that she appears to dwarf several real extinct species of large birds, such as the recently extinct Haast's Eagle, and approaches the size of the extinct Argentavis, one of the largest birds to ever exist.

* ''Franchise/HowToTrainYourDragon'': The majority of the [[OurDragonsAreDifferent different dragon species]] are bigger than humans and have large wingspans to match. The [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever Red Death]] from the first film takes the cake as the second largest species of dragon in the franchise [[note]] beaten only by the Bewilderbeast[[/note]] and the largest that is capable of flying.

* ''Franchise/HowToTrainYourDragon'': The majority of the [[OurDragonsAreDifferent different dragon species]] are bigger than humans and have large wingspans to match. The [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever Red Death]] from the first film takes the cake as the second largest species of dragon in the franchise [[note]] beaten only by the Bewilderbeast [[/note]] and the largest that is capable of flying.

* Rounding out the extinct animals, we have ''Meganeura'' and its relatives from the Carboniferous period. A wingspan of 70 centimeters (27 inches), it sounds puny compared to most of the animals listed here until you find out that it was a ''[[DreadfulDragonfly Dragonfly]]''.

* Due to their lack of hollow bones and air sacs, bats are more limited in size than birds and pterosaurs. However, some species can still get pretty big such as the ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey-headed_flying_fox Grey-Headed Flying Fox]]'' that has a wingpsan of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_golden-crowned_flying_fox Golden-Crowned Flying Fox]] of the Philippines which can reach wingspans of up to 5.5 feet (1.7 meters).

* Though it was a sparrow compared to the above mentioned pterosaurs, ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpactognathus Harpactognathus]]'' is the largest known non-pterodactyloid pterosaur, with an estimated wingspan of 8 feet (2.5 meters). It's also thought to have acted something like a large bird of prey, making it similar in both size and behavior to a modern eagle. Its recently discovered relative ''Dearc'' was even larger, with a possible wingspan of more than 12 feet (3.7 meters).
* Another extinct animal: the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Teratorn Giant Teratorn]] (''Argentavis'') had a smaller wingspan of up to 8 metres (26 feet), but was the largest flying bird of all time. Later, ''Pelagornis sandersi'' broke the record.

* Rounding out the extinct animals, we have ''Meganeura'' and its relatives from the Carboniferous period. A wingspan of 70 centimeters (27 inches), it sounds puny compared to most of the animals listed here until you find out that it was a ''[[BigCreepyCrawlies dragonfly]]''.

* Due to their lack of hollow bones and air sacs, bats are more limited in size than birds and pterosaurs. However, some species can still get pretty large. A good example is the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_golden-crowned_flying_fox Golden-Crowned Flying Fox]] of the Philippines which can reach wingspans of up to 5.5 feet (1.7 meters).

Note that Giant Flyers can be either literally gigantic or just relatively large compared to the other characters. Compare OurDragonsAreDifferent, DragonRider, FeatheredFiend, EldritchAbomination, TerrorDactyl, RocBirds, {{Thunderbird}}, SpaceWhale, LivingGasbag, LivingShip and WingedHumanoid. See also SeaMonster.

* ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'':
** The overlord and guardian in the first game.
** The campaign mode of the sequel has the Leviathan, which is somewhere between thirty to fifty times the size of a battlecruiser. Even though the game's units [[UnitsNotToScale aren't to scale]], it's clearly meant to be ''enormous''.

* The South American ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropeognathus Tropeognathus]]'' (more popularly known by its former name ''Ornithocheirus'') was another pretty gigantic pterosaur. It was once thought that its wings could've been as much as 39 feet (12 metres) across, which would've been the largest wingspan of any known flying animal. While this is now considered very unlikely, even the comparatively tamer modern estimates of 27 feet (8 metres) still make it slightly bigger than ''Pteranodon'' and by far one of the largest pterosaurs known from the Southern hemisphere.

* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropeognathus Tropeognathus]]'' (more popularly known by its former name ''Ornithocheirus'') was another pretty gigantic pterosaur. It was once thought that its wings could've been as much as 40 feet (12 metres) across, which would've been the largest wingspan of any known flying animal. While this is now considered very unlikely, even the comparatively tamer modern estimates of 27 feet (8 metres) still make it slightly bigger than ''Pteranodon'' and by far one of the largest pterosaurs known from the Southern hemisphere.

In RealLife, the largest flying birds are limited by the manner in which avian flight feathers grow, and historically have never been much bigger than even modern condors and albatrosses (wingspan about 3.5m) with the exception of the condor-like ''Argentavis'' and the seagoing ''Pelagornis sandersi'' (both with wingspans perhaps up to 7m). Pterosaurs evolved to be much larger, but then anything bigger than a ''Quetzalcoatlus'' (wingspan about 10m) is running up against the SquareCubeLaw -- it gets ''really'' difficult to take off, since the wings become too heavy to overcome their own weight, let alone the rest of the body. The largest bird species generally spend most of their flight time gliding rather than flying, and prefer to land on a high point rather than the ground, as they tend to need a downward dive at the beginning of a flight to build up momentum. In fiction, if any effort is made at all to explain why an overly large flying creature can exist, the go-to explanations are low-gravity planets and [[HandWave magic]].

* There are multiple species of still living birds with large wingspans including: the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wandering_albatross Wandering Albatross]] (3.7 metres/12 feet), the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steller%27s_sea_eagle Stellar's Sea Eagle]] (2.7 meters/8.6 feet), the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_condor California Condor]] (2.8 meters/8.9 feet), the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinereous_vulture Cinereous Vulture]] (3 meters/10 feet), the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andean_condor Andean Condor]] (3 meters/10 feet), the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marabou_stork Marabou Stork]] (3 meters/10 feet), the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_white_pelican Great White Pelican]] (3.5 meters/11 feet), the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_royal_albatross Southern Royal Albatross]] (3.6 meters/11.5 feet), and the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabiru Jabiru Stork]] (2.8 meters/9.2 feet).