The subject of this article is not new. I had already read that the first dino flight had been just more a skip and a jump than actual flight but it also made mention of the fact that birds do not use more effort than they need when it comes to flying from point A to point B, something I have always thought made sense because, in my personal experience, there are only a few species that actually fly for the sake of it and no other reason.
https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/scienc ... rly-flight