Can Birds Fly in the Rain?

Have you ever seen a bird in flight during a rainstorm?

A bird can fly in the rain. When God created birds on day five of creation week, he equipped them with built-in rain jackets to weather the downpour. Bird feathers are mostly waterproof, and some birds also produce an oil that they spread over their feathers to help the water roll off even better.

Even though they can fly during rainy weather, birds don’t like to. Birds need the air to have a certain level of density to help hold them in the air. Air density refers to the number of molecules in the air and how close together those molecules are.

Air pressure drops during rainstorms, meaning there are fewer molecules, and the molecules are further apart. It takes much more energy for a bird to fly in this less dense air. On rainy days, birds will often stay perched on a tree branch.

God created his creatures with amazing abilities to thrive, even in our sin-cursed world affected by severe weather—including waterproofing bird feathers and creating birds to wait it out during a rainstorm.

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