BleepingComputer.com: Bitmap or sprite for images in AS3

I am just starting to look into AS3 and I was wondering, what is the best way to display an image i.e. a charicter. At first I thought a Bitmap would be best but then I looked into sprites and learnt how to do some basic ones, can you load a bitmap into a sprite? If so then I would use that because sprites seem to be a bit more widely used and just seem more useful. I just cant seem to find anything on google about bitmaps/images in sprites, it is all about rectangles and circles sadly.

Maby im just not looking in the right places?

Thanks, Wolfy87.