Birds are passive Mobs. They can be found in every biome during the Day and Dusk. They fly down from off-screen and peck the ground for a few moments, then fly away. When they take flight, there is a chance that Seeds are left behind, unless it's Winter or in interiors. Birds will also be attracted to Seeds left on the ground. If the player or most other mobs get too close, birds will be frightened away. Birds won't land on Sticky Webbing and will swiftly fly away if they already lands.
When killed, birds drop a Morsel or a Feather, and all other birds nearby will fly away. They are considered innocent creatures and killing them directly adds points to the player's naughtiness level, which causes Krampus to appear. Killing a Crow adds 1 point to the player's naughtiness level while killing a Redbird or Snowbird adds 2 points to the player's naughtiness level.
Downloadable Content
In all DLCs, Birds inside the player's inventory will starve in 2 days unless they are fed Seeds.
In the Shipwrecked and Hamlet DLCs, Birds take 100 poison damge per interval instead of normal 2. Birds won't land on flooding tiles, and will swiftly fly away if they already lands and the flooding spreads.
Don't Starve Together
In Don't Starve Together, birds can drop a variety of basic resources instead of seeds to help new players when they fly away. If the world is younger than 3 days, seeds will drop instead of other items. These common items are randomly chosen, and a given item won't drop if there is already a type of the same item within a radius of 2 tiles. Items will also not drop if 2 of same type of items are within a radius of 5 tiles. The item depends on the age of the oldest player within a 5 tiles radius:
Player age
Birds Item
< 1 day
13%, 3.5%, 2.3%, 1.2%
1 day
15%, 2.5%, 1.7%, 0.8%
2 days
17%, 1.5%, 1%, 0.5%
≤ 20 days*
20%
≤ 1 year
16%
> 1 year
12%
*The actual value is the duration of Autumn, which is 20 days in the default settings.
Hunting
Birds can be caught using a Bird Trap. Placing the trap on the ground will eventually catch a bird even without bait. Adding bait such as Seeds or Berries will greatly decrease the time it takes to catch one. They can be Murdered by right-clicking them in inventory to produce a Feather or Morsel, or be cooked on a fire for a Cooked Morsel. Birds in the player's inventory can be dropped on the ground and will flop on the ground belly-up for a short while before flying off. They can also be imprisoned in Bird Cages.
Hunting Birds requires a ranged weapon such as a Boomerang. Birds will not land within melee range (even if bait is placed on the ground) and will fly away when the player approaches. However, if they are put to sleep when using characters with a normal damage modifier, they can be killed in 1 hit with a sufficient melee weapon.
If a bird is in flight while in range of a sleeping item's effect, it will plummet to the ground and can be picked up as an item.
Wearing a Feather Hat will increase the number of Birds spawning as well as decreasing the time between spawns. Using Birds of the World (while playing as Wickerbottom) will also cause a large number of them to land.
One can send a Smallbird to attack a Bird. This can be done without the bird getting frightened and without raising naughtiness.
They take one blast from the Ice Staff to be frozen and one Sleep Dart to be put to sleep.
In the Shipwrecked DLC, Seagulls replace Snowbirds, in that they will drop the same type of feather. Seagulls can be encountered at the Ocean. Seagulls are the only birds that appear, spawning on the ground with no Turf instead of the Ocean during Hurricane Season. Unlike any other birds, Seagulls are omnivores. They can eat food left on the ground and Ocean. During Hurricane Season, they can pick Limpet Rocks, too.
In the Shipwrecked DLC, Toucans replace Crows, in that they will drop the same type of feather. Toucans will spawn and land on most Turfs, similar to Crows.
The Kingfisher spawns and lands on most turfs, and unlike other birds, it can eat both Meats and Seeds. In addition, it has a chance to drop Fish instead of Seeds.
When placed in a Bird Cage in Caves while the Toadstool is alive, the Canary gets poisoned after 6-12 minutes, giving a Canary (Volatile).
The player can then take the bird back on the surface and free it. The Canary then drops 5-6 Saffron Feathers and flies away. Dropping a volatile Canary on the ground in the Caves will make it explode and drop 1-2 Saffron Feathers. The explosion can turn a nearby Toadstool into a Misery Toadstool. Murdering a volatile Canary only drops 1 Rot. Volatile Canaries can also be used to craft Napsacks.
Pigeons are an exclusive bird Mob found in The Gorge event for DST. They can be caught with Bird Traps that can be purchased from Billy for five Old Coins. Alternatively, they can be purchased alive from Billy for three Old Coins. Pigeons can be Murdered to yield one Meat Scrap which can be used in a variety of recipes to satiate The Gnaw.
When bait-trapping Birds for their Feathers, players should make sure to do so on Turf in which specific Birds will spawn, so that they get specific Feathers. Redbirds and Snowbirds spawn most commonly on Grass Turf, while Crows spawn on Rocky Turf and all player-made turfs.
If one can manage to bring a Damaged Bishop from the Ruins, their ranged blasts are an effective tool to hunt birds without expending resources on Bird Traps or Boomerangs.
If the player doesn't want any Feathers from the Birds, cooking them alive provides a guaranteed Cooked Morsel. Note that this means sacrificing the option of turning the Bird into Small Jerky, since cooked meat cannot be hung on a Drying Rack.
If the player character has a damage modifier < 1, Boomerangs will not kill birds with one hit, allowing them to flee. Alternatively, the player can use an Ice Staff to freeze the bird then use melee to kill them.
If placed in a Hamlet interior, birds will flop around on the floor, upside down. They will not fly away and can be picked up again.
Trivia
Before the Naughty and Nice update, the Redbird was called "Red Bird".
Cormorants were added to SW more than a year after its official completion in the Home Sea Home update, after being tested in a beta branch for several months.
Canaries were introduced in the Warts and All update.
Puffins were introduced in the Turn of Tides update.
Meat such as Morsels previously attracted Crows. However, Morsels can no longer be used as a bait in traps and will not attract Crows to their location.
The Snowbird is referenced as a "Winter Robin" or "Junco" in game files. A junco is a small North American bird, unrelated to the robin.
The Snowbird's coloration and crest are reminiscent of the Blue Jay (a member of the crow's family, Corvidae).
The red parrot appears to be based on the green-winged macaw.
The Toucan appears to be based in part on yellow-throated toucans.
The Redbird is referenced as "Robin" in game files, and uses real-life robin sounds, but the artwork is inspired by a cardinal.
Woodie strongly dislikes birds. He says they are evil and should be punished.
Maxwell mentions that he doesn't know how the Crows got to the island and does not recognize the Snowbird. He says that the Redbird comes from "the fire lands", possibly meaning that there are other worlds in the Constant.
It is revealed in the animated short C’est La Vie that crows were unintentionally brought into the Constant along with Wes.
Wickerbottom refers to several of the birds by their scientific names.
Crow: Corvus brachyrhynchos, the American Crow. If all the crows in the Constant are descended from the ones brought along with Wes, and the animated short C’est La Vie takes place in France, then the crows would most likely actually be Corvus corone, or Carrion Crows, which are native to western Europe. However, it is possible that Wickerbottom simply mistook them, as the most distinguishable difference between these two species is their call.
Redbird and Snowbird: Cardinalis, a genus of New World cardinals. Real-life cardinals' plumage does not generally change color seasonally, hence her surprise at the Snowbird's coloration.
the blue Parrot from Hamlet: "Psittaciformes Norwegianae". Psittaciformes is the real-world order containing all parrots. "Norwegianae" is likely a reference to the fictional Norwegian Blue parrot from Monty Python's famous comedy sketch.
Crows have a lower Naughtiness level than the other birds. This might be due to the common belief of Crows representing bad omens.
In RoG, upon examination of a Redbird, Wilson will say, "Does that mean winter is gone?" instead of "Does that mean spring is coming?".
Parrot Pirates, upon being caught, will have a name and will occasionally speak from the inventory as red text appearing above the player's head.
When stunned, Birds can be stolen by Prime Apes and stored in their inventories.
Real-life canaries are extremely sensitive to oxygen deprivation. In-game Canaries getting poisoned when in caves is a reference to their historical use, warning miners that air was running out by dying.
Pigeons in Hamlet have different sprites than Pigeons from The Gorge.
A red version of the Blue Parrot is seen in the animated short Lunar Roots, however they cannot be found in game.
Puffins are the only birds that don't sink when dropped in the ocean in DST.
Attention: The following categories are only for the players look up the page based on their first impression, they have nothing to do with the actual categories/behavior/function/tags of these creatures
Attention: The following categories are only for the players look up the page based on their first impression, they have nothing to do with the actual categories/behavior/function/tags of these creatures
Attention: The following categories are only for the players look up the page based on their first impression, they have nothing to do with the actual categories/behavior/function/tags of these creatures
Attention: The following categories are only for the players look up the page based on their first impression, they have nothing to do with the actual categories/behavior/function/tags of these creatures
![Cormorant and rats eat garden cinxept animation for Shipwrect by Floriane Grivillers [1]](/wiki/File:Cormorant_and_rats_eat_garden_by_Floriane_Grivillers.gif)
![Shipwrect birds and rats concept art by Floriane Grivillers [2]](/wiki/File:Shipwrect_birds_and_rats_concept_art_by_Floriane_Grivillers.jpg)
![Snowbird in Historically Accurate Don't Starve Themed Card "Afraid" by Klei Developers [3]](/wiki/File:Historically_Accurate_Don%27t_Starve_Themed_Card_Afraid.jpg)
