Summary: Early-life learning is critical for acquiring the behavioral repertoire necessary for survival, yet how this process unfolds in the wild remains poorly understood. Behavioral ecology lacks a predictive framework for how animals acquire and refine complex behaviors under natural conditions. My research develops an integrative program to address this gap, focusing on how animals acquire, refine, and optimize movement behaviors in dynamic environments. Using large biologging datasets of fine-scale location and posture in wild birds, combined with biomechanical and environmental analyses, I examine how soaring flight and migration develop. By integrating comparative datasets and modeling, my work aims to generate testable hypotheses on learning strategies and the timing and intensity of learning as functions of ecological and life-history variation, with broad applicability across systems.