How to Write 鸟 (niǎo) — Meaning “bird”

Imagine a bird sitting on a branch: the first stroke (丿) is its beak, the curved hook (横折钩) is its body, the dot is its eye, and the bottom hooks form the tail. The final horizontal stroke (一) is the branch it perches on.

Start with a left-falling stroke (丿) for the head, then a horizontal hook (横折钩) for the body. Add the dot (丶) for the eye, then a vertical double hook (竖折折钩) for the tail, and finish with a horizontal stroke (一). A common mistake is to make the tail too long or forget the eye dot.

鸟 stands alone and means 'bird' in general. 鸠 has 九 (nine) on the left and refers to a specific kind of bird (turtledove), while 鸡 has 又 (again) on the left and means 'chicken'. Visually, 鸟 has no extra left-side component, while the others do.

鸟 is used for any bird, such as in 小鸟 (little bird) and 飞鸟 (flying bird). Culturally, it appears in the idiom 鸟语花香 (birds sing and flowers smell sweet) to describe a beautiful spring scene. It can also be part of cute expressions like 小鸟依人, meaning a sweet and dependent person.

Common words containing 鸟 include: 小鸟 (xiǎo niǎo) — little bird; 鸟窝 (niǎo wō) — bird's nest; 飞鸟 (fēi niǎo) — flying bird.