http://dbs.umt.edu/flightlab/

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/04/science/04birds.html?_r=2&ref=science

The one-day-old Australian brush turkey, he says, may behave as
theropods once did. Theropods were early winged and feathered dinosaurs that
walked mainly on their hind legs and were incapable of flight.

Ground-nesting birds like the brush turkey are precocial — they hit the ground
running when they are born, a crucial defense from predators. A day-old brush
turkey can run straight up a rock wall or a tree, an ability that diminishes as
the bird gets older.

A key to this early skill is flapping its small wings. This is not to try to
fly, Dr. Dial said, but to serve the same role as a spoiler on a race car: to
keep the bird on the ground so it can generate more force with its feet and
climb steep walls. Dr. Dial calls it “wing-assisted incline running” and has
high-speed videos of ground birds running up walls.

When the birds arrive atop a rock, and any threats have passed, they jump to the
ground using their wings to slow the descent; that is how Dr. Dial believes
flight may have begun. “This form of behavior — independence, locomotor
capacity, parental care and development — could be similar to the life history
of the theropod,” he said.