niǎo

bird

In Chinese, '鸟' is the word equivalent to the English 'bird'. This word is used to refer to a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves, characterized 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. As in English, it can be used to denote a general class or specific types of birds and it is used in common phrases and expressions as well.