Unlike Empoleon and Magmar, Dodrio are not actually flightless birds. Nor is their apparent flight (as some have imagined) accomplished by jumping up into the air so high that they reach the heights of their more typical avian ancestors. Within their ball-like bodies, Dodrio possess retractable, nearly invisible wings which are small in proportion to their bodies, but nonetheless can carry them over short distances.

Few have seen these wings over the years, and fewer have lived to tell about them, but as for those who did, legends abound. Ancient Dodrio, they say, had large orange wings as long as their necks which they used for balance, which were forced into hiding by Ho-oh or Lugia or Arceus as punishment for trying to outrace the legendary dogs, or giving song to man. The legends are murky, of course, varying from culture to culture, but a surprisingly high number have agreed that Dodrio in ancient times had wings which were lost as a form of divine punishment.

In reality the wings were not lost. The Dodrio in the original legend did not have his wings stripped. He got word of the gods' wrath from a Metapod, and was inspired by its cocoon to hide its wings as well. Its descendants to this day are reluctant to use wing-based attacks or even reveal their wings, but can be taught with training. Whatever legendary that Dodrio once offended has long since forgotten its grudge; all that remains is an immense sense of guilt and shame which has entered the ancestral memory of the Dodrio, along with small, retractable wings.