Definition of "bird"

The level below this is called the Phylum; birds belong to the Phylum Chordata, which includes all the vertebrate animals (the sub-phylum Vertebrata) and a few odds and ends.

2004, Bruce Whittington, Loucas Raptis, Seasons with Birds, page 50

He once took in his own mother, and was robbed by a 'pal,' who thought he was a doctor. Oh, he's a rare bird is 'Gentleman Joe'!

1886, Edmund Routledge, Routledge's every boy's annual

"What I mean - I expect that old, red-headed bird at the office sent you round with no other purpose."

1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019

The door opened and a tall hungry-looking bird with a cane and a big nose came in neatly, shut the door behind him against the pressure of the door closer, marched over to the desk and placed a wrapped parcel on the desk.

1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 24

"Ah, he's a funny bird," said Phaedra, throwing a leg over the sill.

2006, Jeff Fields, Terry Kay, A cry of angels

And by my word! the bonny bird / In danger shall not tarry.

1809, Thomas Campbell, Lord Ullin's Daughter

After tea, the bright boys wash, clean their boots, and change into their “second-best” attire, and stroll forth […] ; sometimes to saunter, in company with others, up and down that parade until they “click” with one of the “birds.”

1918 , Thomas Burke, Nights in London‎, New York: Henry Holt and Company, page 75

The usual visual grammar was in place – a carpet in the street, people in paddocks awaiting a brush with something glamorous, blokes with earpieces, birds in frocks of colliding colours that if sighted in nature would indicate the presence of poison.

2013 September 13, Russell Brand, The Guardian‎

“All these fantastic birds, long hair, made up, false eyelashes and things, crowding round this group of scabby, spotty teenagers,” marveled Anderson.

2017, David Weigel, The Show That Never Ends: The Rise and Fall of Prog Rock, W. W. Norton & Company

But all of a sudden though, just through the smoke / It's your bird laughing and joking with a bloke / Ain't just that either, as she moves closer / In a shape what looks like they're lovers, he's tonguing her!

2002, “Geezers need excitement”, in Mike Skinner (lyrics), Original Pirate Material, performed by The Streets

Any of our birds squawking?

2007 September 25, Bungie, Halo 3, v1.0, Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox 360, level/area: Crow's Nest

Deployment of the fourth bird "should ensure that Inmarsat has sufficient capacity in orbit in the early 1990s, taking into account the possibility of launch failures and the age of some of the spacecraft in the Inmarsat first generation system

1988, Satellite communications. Jan-Oct. 1988

Will a government- backed APSTAR satellite knock out a planned AsiaSat II bird?

1992, Cable Vision

In reality, the Air Force was never able to place a bird in orbit that quickly.

2015, John Fuller, Thor's Legions: Weather Support to the U.S. Air Force and Army, 1937-1987, Springer, page 384

That ungentle gull, the cuckoo's bird.

c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene i]

The brydds [birds] of the aier have nestes.

1494–1536, William Tyndale, Bible, Matthew 8:20

For whatever reason — and there are so many to chose from — they flipped the bird in the direction of the tinted windows of the Bushmobile.

2002, The Advocate, "Flying fickle finger of faith", page 55.

Then she raised both hands above her shoulders and flipped him the bird with each one.

2003, James Patterson, Peter de Jonge, The Beach House, Warner Books, page 305

Never dirt on my kneesI'm just serving these fiendsSell birds to the beesI sell birds to the trees

2015 January 12, Lil Wayne (lyrics and music), “Sh!t” (track 2), in Sorry 4 the Wait 2‎

BUBBLES: One time I was making a model and I glued the wing to a B17 bomber to my bird by accident.

2004 May 9, Mike Clattenburg, Mike Smith (actor), 05:29 from the start, in Trailer Park Boys(Conky), season 4, episode 5 (TV series), spoken by Bubbles (Mike Smith)

MAMMON: These day-owls.SURLY: That are birding in men's purses

1610 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Alchemist, London: […] Thomas Snodham, for Walter Burre, and are to be sold by Iohn Stepneth, […], published 1612; reprinted Menston, Yorkshire: The Scolar Press, 1970, (please specify the GB page), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

Unless the TV crew has its own flyaway, the locals can still defeat a story they couldn't prevent reporters from covering by cutting it off at the pass, when it is being birded through their facilities.

1995, David D. Pearce, Wary Partners: Diplomats and the Media, page 43

After being sent by fast car to Tel Aviv the cassettes would be 'birded' by satellite to the USA and London.

2012, Yoel Cohen, Media Diplomacy, page 127

SOC100 isn’t bird at all lol. But ANT101 is super easy & the prof (Dr. Sherry Fukuzawa) is amazing.

2020 October 16, illegalsalt, “Thoughts on these bird courses”, in Reddit‎, r/UTM

but admittedly, all the hours spent creating excel sheets optimizing my course plan, all the research finding the absolutely best professors, all the smart friends i made, all the alumni i contacted to collect crowdmarks of past exams, all the research i did finding the birdiest courses of all...... all of it was wayyyyyy more fun to me than just sitting down and studying like a normal kid. it was kind of just like playing a video game.

2022 June 17, ConradIsMyDaddy, “How to Graduate from the University of Waterloo's Computer Science Program with the Least Amount of Effort”, in Reddit‎, r/uwaterloo

Free Criminal, he got birdedThat's a L but I know he’ll firm itI was vexed when I heard that verdict

2017, “No Hook”, ZK & Digga D (lyrics), CDM (music)