By combining functional, ecological and evolutionary perspectives, neuroecology can provide key insights into understanding how behaviour and the underlying sensory and neural processes are shaped by ecology and evolutionary history. Bees are an ideal system for neuroecological studies because they represent a numerous and diverse insect group that inhabit a broad range of environments. Flight is central to the evolutionary success of bees and is the key to their survival and fitness but this review of recent work on fundamental flight behaviours in different species  landing, collision avoidance and speed control – reveals striking differences. We discuss the potential ecological and evolutionary drivers behind this variation but argue that to understand their adaptive value future work should include multidisciplinary approaches that integrate neuroscience, ecology, phylogeny and behaviour.