Takeoff
Flight is a toggle. You need a species that can fly and a life stage that has the action.
| Device | Takeoff |
|---|---|
| PC | Q |
| Mobile | Wing button |
| Xbox | Y |
| PlayStation | Triangle |
| Any | Fly in the Actions menu |
Press the same control again, or touch the ground, to land. While airborne, the camera sets your heading. A steep dive shows a wind trail and speeds you up. Sprint (Shift on PC) speeds walking and swimming. It does not speed level flight.
Other useful ground controls: Shift to sprint on PC, X or Square on console; interact or eat with E or click on PC, B or Circle on console. The Actions menu uses number keys, M, and C on PC.
Four flight classes
Unlimited flight. Most standard flyers, including sparrows, ducks, ravens, and eagles, can stay up until you land or hit something.
Limited flight. Chickens, peafowl, quail, guineafowl, and turkeys show a stamina bar. When it empties you are forced into a descent and cannot climb until you land and the bar recovers. A Glider trait keeps a lot of forward speed and loses little height on that descent, but it does not remove the stamina limit.
Hover. Hummingbird, Phoenix, Cockatrice, Peryton, Griffin, Skeleton, and Robot can hold still in the air and only move when you press a direction. Argentavis is a full-flight bird that also has a hover action.
Flightless. Eggs cannot fly. Penguins, kiwi, ostrich, emu, cassowary, dodo, great auk, moa, elephant bird, kelenken, gastornis, dromornis, and kumimanu do not get a working Fly action. Several of those swim or sprint instead.
Age and special cases
Most hatchlings cannot fly. Grow to adult first. Exceptions with a short flight include the Peryton fawn, Falcatakely hatchling, and other superprecocial fossil chicks such as Confuciusornis, Feitianius, Microraptor, and updated Archaeopteryx. Phoenix and Cockatrice fledglings also received a short flight in the December 2025 notes. Griffin grows twice: the fledgling has limited flight, and the adult does not.
Climb cancels Fly if a climbing bird hits a vertical surface. Call (1), Eyes (7), Mimic (M on mimickers), and Magic (0 on mythical passes) can still be used in the air. Silent Flier removes the usual wind sound.
If you cannot take off
- You are an egg, or a hatchling of a species that must grow first.
- The species is flightless. The button will not help.
- Limited-flight stamina is empty. Wait on the ground.
- You hit a wall, tree, or the terrain and the toggle turned off.
A flight-physics rework is a developer target for January 2027. It is not in the game yet. Until then, use the controls above.