The 10 best Flying Pokemon of all time

The best Flying Pokémon should hold all the power of the wind, but have an air of elegance about them

Birds are beautiful. This is a simple fact you must accept before you can proceed further. I always imagined that if I were a trainer type in a Pokémon game, I’d be a Bird-Keeper trainer. Flying Pokémon are more than just birds though – if it has wings, chances are it’s a flying type. Dragons, bugs, and even a winged egg fit into this category, which makes it a strange mix of Pokémon based on real animals, and some truly wild fantasy designs.

Whether they’re speedy and streamlined or bulky and beautiful, these are the very best Flying Pokémon ever created.

If you want to see more Pokémon rankings then check out our lists of the best Electric Pokémon, the best Water Pokémon, and the best Normal Pokémon.

Togekiss

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When Generation 2 first came out, the Togepi line felt a little incomplete. Togetic is a cute and useful Pokémon but it needed that powerful final form that made raising Togepi worth it. Thankfully, Gen 4 came along and gave us Togekiss, making it all worth it. It’s a bit of a simplistic design, but it brings in the cute charm of Togepi while giving it a new sense of bulk and power. Plus, Gen 6’s addition of the Fairy-type made it significantly more powerful.

Yveltal

From a pure glowing white bird to quite literally the embodiment of death, Yveltal is monstrous in all the right ways. The way its arms and tail flow so smoothly as it flies is a little creepy but gives the impression of death’s flowing black cloak coming to envelop you. Then you throw a healthy dose of dark red onto the body and you’ve got the recipe for an exceptionally cool legendary Pokémon.

Staraptor

The early-route birds have become a little more flashy in recent generations – as we’ll soon see – but Staraptor is the best example of how great these Normal-type birds could be. You may prefer Pidgeot or Swellow, and that’s fair enough, but Staraptor has that extra edge that makes it stand out from the flock. Now, I’m not saying it’s the tuft of feathers dip-dyed red to make it look like a teenager in a rebellious phase…but it’s exactly that and I love it.

Salamence

Sometimes you need to throw avian beauty to one side and behold a giant powerful dragon. There are a few good ones in the Flying-type – Rayquaza and Dragonite come to mind – but Salamence is the one I’d most want as a partner. The bright blue and red color scheme makes it seem somehow less threatening than many of the others, and while that big fang-filled mouth is scary, it’s also very cute when it smiles.

Lugia

Speaking of big smiles, Lugia is the kind of gentle giant that the Pokémon world doesn’t have enough of. Sure, it can bust out a world-ending Aeroblast when it needs to, but its white and pale blue body give it this calming, benevolent presence. Plus, it has giant hands for wings that you just know would feel wonderful in a hug.

Galarian Moltres

It’s time to face the music – Kantonian Moltres looks like garbage. It’s a chicken someone left on the barbeque for too long and it’s burst into flames. Thankfully, regional forms came along and made it into something special.

The black and red of the Galarian form make it look like a brutal monster of a Pokémon whose body is covered in flames that, according to the Pokédex, can burn the spirit from your body, leaving you a soulless husk of a human. Look it in the eyes and say it’s a bad design – it’ll be the last thing you ever do.

Corviknight

You don’t generally expect your cute Route 1 bird Pokémon to turn into an armor-plated jet-black bird with murderous red eyes – but Corviknight doesn’t care about your puny human expectations. It’s no wonder the people of Galar trust Corviknight to singlehandedly act as their public transportation system, you couldn’t be safer with this literal black knight carrying you through the skies.

Articuno

Articuno has a relatively simple design, but it comes across as such a majestic creature with what little it has to work with. Its sweeping tail is like a ribbon that glides along behind it in the breeze. Its wings are large and sweeping but glide so effortlessly along the wind. There’s this powerful grace about it that befits such a frosty creature. Then you have its Galarian form which elevated its attitude into something that knows it’s better than you.

Noivern

Noivern is just the right kind of goofy looking. A black body mixed with purple and cyan sounds like a disastrous design, but it just works. It gives off the aura of a powerful dragon while remaining sharp and streamlined – it’s the kind of creature that could use its wings to slice you to pieces at the speed of sound.

Talonflame

As I said at the start, birds are beautiful, and Talonflame is the most beautiful bird. What I admire is how it is undoubtedly a fire bird, but it doesn’t go over the top with it. No flames spurting out of the wings, but a streamlined orange body with just enough flair to invoke the idea of fire. It keeps the simplicity that makes the early-route birds look great but kicks it up a little by leaning into its typing. Masterful design work.