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Birds have featured in culture and art since prehistoric times, when they were represented in early cave paintings.[304] Some birds have been perceived as monsters, including the mythological Roc and the Māori's legendary Pouākai, a giant bird capable of snatching humans.[305] Birds were later used as symbols of power, as in the magnificent Peacock Throne of the Mughal and Persian emperors.[306] With the advent of scientific interest in birds, many paintings of birds were commissioned for books.

Among the most famous of these bird artists was John James Audubon, whose paintings of North American birds were a great commercial success in Europe and who later lent his name to the National Audubon Society.[307] Birds are also important figures in poetry; for example, Homer incorporated nightingales into his Odyssey, and Catullus used a sparrow as an erotic symbol in his Catullus 2.[308] The relationship between an albatross and a sailor is the central theme of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which led to the use of the term as a metaphor for a 'burden'.[309] Other English metaphors derive from birds; vulture funds and vulture investors, for instance, take their name from the scavenging vulture.[310]

Perceptions of bird species vary across cultures. Owls are associated with bad luck, witchcraft, and death in parts of Africa,[311] but are regarded as wise across much of Europe.[312] Hoopoes were considered sacred in Ancient Egypt and symbols of virtue in Persia, but were thought of as thieves across much of Europe and harbingers of war in Scandinavia.[313] In heraldry, birds, especially eagles, often appear in coats of arms.[314]

In music
Main article: Birds in music
In music, birdsong has influenced composers and musicians in several ways: they can be inspired by birdsong; they can intentionally imitate bird song in a composition, as Vivaldi, Messiaen, and Beethoven did, along with many later composers; they can incorporate recordings of birds into their works, as Ottorino Respighi first did; or like Beatrice Harrison and David Rothenberg, they can duet with birds.
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Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves /ˈeɪviːz/, characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight skeleton. Birds live worldwide and range in size from the 5.5 cm (2.2 in) bee hummingbird to the 2.8 m (9 ft 2 in) ostrich. There are about ten thousand living species, more than half of which are passerine, or "perching" birds. Birds have wings whose development varies according to species; the only known groups without wings are the extinct moa and elephant birds. Wings, which evolved from forelimbs, gave birds the ability to fly, although further evolution has led to the loss of flight in some birds, including ratites, penguins, and diverse endemic island species. The digestive and respiratory systems of birds are also uniquely adapted for flight. Some bird species of aquatic environments, particularly seabirds and some waterbirds, have further evolved for swimming.

Birdsornithiformes (Oilbird) – 55–0 Mya, Early Eocene–present[7]
Nyctibiiformes (Potoos) – 47–0 Mya, Middle Eocene–present[7]
Podargiformes (Frogmouths) – 47–0 Mya, Middle Eocene–present[7]
Aegotheliformes (Owlet-nightjars) – 19–0 Mya, Early Miocene–present[7]
Apodiformes (Swifts, treeswifts and hummingbirds) – 55–0 Mya, Early Eocene–present[11]
Cuculiformes (Cuckoos) – 38?–0 Mya, Late Eocene?–present[11]
Otidiformes (Bustards) – 11–0 Mya, Late Miocene–present[7][14]
Musophagiformes (Turacos) – 52–0 Mya, Early Eocene–present[15]
Opisthocomiformes (Hoatzin) – 34–0 Mya, Late Eocene–present[16]
Gruiformes (Cranes, crakes, rails, wood-rails, flufftails, gallinules, limpkins, trumpeters, finfoots and sungrebes) – 59–0 Mya, Late Paleocene–present[7]
Charadriiformes (Plovers, crab plovers, lapwings, gulls, puffins, auks, sandipipers, buttonquails, stilts, avocets, ibisbills, woodcocks, skuas, etc) – 55–0 Mya, Early Eocene–present[17]
Gaviiformes (Loons) – 53?–0 Mya, Early Eocene?–present[18]
Procellariiformes (Petrels, storm petrels, and albatrosses) – 66?–0 Mya, Early Paleocene?–present[7]
Sphenisciformes (Penguins) – 62–0 Mya, Early Paleocene–present[19]
Ciconiiformes (Storks) – 30–0 Mya, Early Oligocene–present[7][20]