the.com/birds
the only dinosaurs that survived the apocalypse and learned to sing about it
means Feathered, warm-blooded animals with wings and beaks, most of which can fly, all of which lay eggs.
from From Old English 'bridd,' which originally meant a young bird or nestling rather than the adult — the general 'fowl' word back then was 'fugol' (the ancestor of 'fowl'). Over time 'bridd' broadened to cover all birds and elbowed 'fugol' aside. Along the way the 'r' and the 'i' swapped places, a sound-shuffle called metathesis (the same flip that turned 'thrid' into 'third'), giving us 'bird.' Its deeper roots are murky — etymologists admit they don't really know where 'bridd' itself came from.
- living dinosaurs
- Direct descendants of theropods like T. rex
- hollow bones
- Lightweight skeletons partly filled with air sacs
- navigation
- Some sense Earth's magnetic field to migrate
- smart corvids
- Crows make tools and hold grudges
- no teeth
- Traded them for beaks to fly lighter
arctic tern — migrates 44,000 miles annually between arctic and antarctic
peregrine falcon — fastest animal on earth, dives at 240+ mph
kakapo of new zealand — critically endangered flightless parrot, only ~200 left alive
ivory gull — lives farthest north of any bird, found at 86°n latitude