Bird

Birds refer to a variety of airborne, feathered animals found in nearly every location above ground in The Forest. They provide feathers, which are crucial for crafting arrows, and can be killed for small meat or, in case of the seagull, animal heads.

Gameplay
Birds can be seen flying around in nearly every place around the peninsula. As they fly, they can drop single feathers which are used in crafting, and they will also drop between 3 and 5 feathers if killed, which will then float up and away from the bird's body and have to be caught out of the air. Most commonly, birds will land on the ground, stay for a while, and then depart back into the sky. They will also land on various scenery objects, as rocks, and player made structures such as shelters or log sleds. When killing a bird that has landed on one of your structures especially on the top of the hunting shelter which they're attracted to, consider using the repair tool to kill them to avoid damaging your structure. Special rules apply for some types of birds, as seagulls can be seen only around the coasts and lakes, and crows seem to be attracted by corpses lying around. Birds have a tendency to land on mutant corpses especially right after the player kills a mutant, even when the player carries the corpse into a fire to rid of it and get bones. This occurrence can be used by the player to attract birds and obtain feathers, but this isn't advised because it requires a mutant to be killed, possibly attracting more mutants in the area and making them more aggressive. Be careful when you try to hit birds on a flaming corpse on a fire as you can also hit the fire, damaging it and even destroying it so use the repair tool to avoid this.

When approached, there is a rather high chance a bird will be spooked and immediately fly away. When fast enough, the player can still catch up on a departing bird and strike it. The most effective way to hunt and kill birds is to do a downward attack which is executed by looking down and attacking with a melee weapon while they're on the ground, similar to opening locked suitcases. The katana works best for this as it has a very fast swing speed. It is possible to hit and kill birds while they're flying mid-air, so the slingshot is recommended for this as it can propel small rocks faster and more accurately rather than throwing small rocks with your bare hands. All birds can be killed with a single hit from any weapon, arrow, throwable rock, or slingshot.

The player can build a birdhouse that will attract birds and leave feathers behind for the player:

When killed, birds provide the following:

Types
There are some variations of birds on the peninsula, all of them featuring a unique appearance and some providing special items or showing slightly different behaviour from the rest. Below is list of all currently present animals classifiable as birds.

Trivia

 * There is an idle animation featuring the player raising his hand to have a bird land on it. It flaps its wings several times before venturing back into the sky. Birds seen this way seem not to be killable, as they serve as decoration.
 * Birds can be killed by the repair tool, even though it is not considered a weapon.

Known Bugs

 * If the player is around a group of birds, and wields a lighter and an axe, a bird will come and appear to be floating because both hands are occupied and the left arm does not show up.
 * Similarly, there is a bug where a bird will continuously land and fly away without relent.
 * Currently, the AI of the birds will cause many to keep landing in the same spot over and over, which allows for easy feather collecting.
 * Birds have been known to land on fires and torches, and well as flaming effigies.
 * Birds can quite regularly be seen landing in thin air.
 * Sometimes, when spooked on a gradient, a bird will fly into the ground.
 * Birds can commonly be seen flying through solid structures, e.g. rocks, trees, or player-built objects.
 * Another quite frequent bug involves a bird getting stuck in a loop in its flying animation, turning in small circles in the sky.
 * A somewhat common glitch involves geese occasionally swimming in random places inland, and very rarely in the caves.