🐦 Birds

Every bird has feathers, wings and a beak, and every bird hatches from an egg. Not every bird can fly: penguins swim with their wings, and ostriches run. Birds are the only dinosaurs still alive.

The biggest and the smallest here: the ostrich and the ruby-throated hummingbird

🧒 our measuring child, 4 ft1.2 m🐦 Ostrich, 9 ft2.7 m tall🐦 Ruby-throated hummingbird, 3.2 in8 cm long🔍 Pip the pangolin zoomed in 10 times on the ruby-throated hummingbird

⚖️ Compare them

What makes a bird?

Feathers: every bird has them, and no other animal alive does.
Wings and a beak with no teeth.
Babies hatch from eggs with hard shells.
Light bones with air inside, which help most birds fly.

13 animals here

Record holders here

Fastest: the peregrine falcon, 200 mph322 km/h1
Heaviest: the ostrich, 198 to 300 lb90 to 136 kg2
Lives longest: the American flamingo, 40 to 60 years40 to 60 years3

Birds for kids, A to Z

🦩 American flamingo: Pink from the food it eats, it often rests on one leg.
🐦 American robin: It tilts its head on lawns to spot worms, and lays blue eggs.
🦅 Bald eagle: A big eagle with a white head that catches fish from rivers.
🐔 Chicken: A farm bird that clucks, scratches for food and lays eggs.
🐧 Emperor penguin: The biggest penguin, and the dad keeps the egg warm on his feet.
🦉 Great horned owl: Its "horns" are just feathers, and it can turn its head far around.
🐦 Greater roadrunner: A kind of cuckoo that runs across the desert instead of flying.
🦆 Mallard: The duck in most ponds, and the ancestor of many farm ducks.
🐦 Ostrich: The biggest bird alive: it cannot fly, but it runs very fast.
🦅 Peregrine falcon: The fastest animal in the world when it dives from the sky.
🐦 Ruby-throated hummingbird: A tiny bird whose wings beat so fast they hum.
🦜 Scarlet macaw: A bright red parrot that can crack hard nuts with its beak.
🦃 Wild turkey: A big forest bird that can fly, and sleeps up in trees.

National Park Service, Denali and Yukon-Charley Rivers, checked 30 October 2026.
Smithsonian's National Zoo, Ostrich, checked 30 October 2026.
Smithsonian's National Zoo, checked 30 October 2026.