When searching for the biggest beast ever to take to the sky, you might think it sensible to look at the biggest birds alive today.

One modern-day giant weighs up to 330lb (150kg) and can stand 9ft (2.75m) tall with wings spanning almost 6.5ft (2m). But this is the ostrich, which famously does not fly.

Neither do any of the rest of the big birds in the ratite family, which includes the emu, rhea and cassowary. Similarly, the 3ft (1m) emperor penguin and marginally shorter king penguin both reach impressive weights but only “fly” underwater.

Arguably the heaviest flying bird is the kori bustard of southern Africa. Males can reach 42lb (19kg) with wingspans of up to 2.5ft (75cm), but these ground-dwelling birds rarely fly.

Concentrating on birds that are in their element on the wing, the Andean condor is often named as the largest flying bird. Among these mountain-dwelling South American vultures, males can tip the scales at up to 33lb (15kg) and have wings that can span 10ft 5in (3.2m).

Above the high seas, there is a bird who might only weigh around 19lb (8.5kg) but its wings routinely span more than 9ft 10in (3m). The wandering albatross holds the longest wingspan record for any flying bird, the maximum having been recorded at 11ft 10in (3.63m).

It can fly without any mechanical cost thanks to “dynamic soaring”: it uses wind energy to cover thousands of miles without the effort of flapping.

Of course, birds are not the only animals with impressive wings. Known variously as megabats, flying foxes or fruit bats, a number of tropical bats have also grown large.

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