History Main / ArtisticLicenseOrnithology

Can certainly extend to other flying creatures; many are the pterosaurs and other {{Giant Flyer}}s that are shown constructing chicken-like nests. See also FeatherFingers, NoisyNature, ToothyBird, OstrichHeadHiding, AcrophobicBird, FlyingFlightlessBird, PenguinsAreDucks, MouthyBird, NoCartoonFish and AllAnimalsAreDogs.

* The short OVA ''Inko Colors'' averts this [[{{Pun}} with flying colors]]. The birds are all nicely accurate in anatomy and movement, and the parakeets even possess the proper zygodactyl feet.

* ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' story "ComicBook/TheSuperSteedOfSteel" features one scene wherein a bald eagle captures a little girl called Bonnie. Birds of prey cannot carry humans around, not even toddlers.

* ''LetsPlay/NewLifeSMP'': The Penguin origin is described to have fur, even though birds have feathers and not fur. In this case, the blame's more on the creators of the mod than the SMP members themselves.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' has Polly, a pet parrot with the coloration of a scarlet macaw- minus any black on the beak- but a crest like a cockatoo that's raised all the time. She is also notably depicted with three toes in the front and a hallux in the back, whereas parrots have two toes in the front and two in the back[[labelnote:*]]This is also present in the [[Anime/AceAttorney anime adaptation]], although a couple of scenes do depict her with proper feet[[/labelnote]].

Almost all generic small cartoon birds will behave like robins, hopping around on the lawn and eating worms. And they will appear as a {{Palette Swap}}ped sparrow, often bright yellow or blue, with a yellow beak and legs. While this is the case for some passerines (like the common yellowthroat or the chickadee), for others it's not the case.

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':
** ''Videogame/TailsAdventure'' gives us the Battle Bird Armada, a paramilitary organization whose ranks include Doctor Fukurokov, an owl with a ''beard''.

* The (in)famous peeing baby penguin in ''WesternAnimation/HappyFeet 2''. Penguins are in the Neognathae order of birds, they not only don't have a urethra (just a cloaca), they don't even have ''urine''. Their bodies use uric acid instead of urea, and uric acid (the white paste in pigeon poop) doesn't have to be diluted in water.

[[/folder]]

* ''VideoGame/AngryBirds'': The titular birds have feathers, beaks, and eggs, but the similarities [[{{Cephalothorax}} end there]] - their lack of any limbs to speak of is due to stylization. They also come in multiple colors and shapes, and supplementary material describes them as being of different species, but they all take care of three similar-looking eggs in a chicken-like cup nest. Different unrelated species of bird in RealLife wouldn't cooperate in such a specific manner... though then again, [[RuleOfFun they don't exactly hurl themselves out of slingshots to take down green pigs in poorly constructed structures, either]].
* In ''VideoGame/{{Drawn}}- The Painted Tower'', you must conjure up a cardinal to eat the bugs that plague a talking tree. Cardinals are seed-eaters, with short conical beaks unsuited to preying upon insects.

** "If God wanted birds to fly, [[http://notalwaysworking.com/your-intelligence-is-up-in-the-air/25316 he'd have given them wings or something!"]]
* [=ARKive=]'s bird taxonomy is a mixed bag, as relatively cutting-edge ideas (placing the hamerkop as a pelecaniform) are used along with older, discredited theories (buttonquails are placed with cranes and rails, but this has been abandoned in favor of allying them with plovers and gulls).

** On the other hand the ''eagle'' character, Marahute, is absurdly ''over''sized; while the Australian Wedge-Tailed Eagle is one of the largest flying birds in the world, it's not nearly large enough for a human child to ride on.

* ''WesternAnimation/ChickenRun'': The entire premise is that Mrs Tweedy, tiring of the low profits from egg production, decides to convert the farm to make chicken pies instead. However chickens good for egg laying make poor meat birds and vice versa, so if she had succeeded her pies would have been poor quality and unlikely to sell well. The premise does work however, if you assume that the current chickens will be used to make a prototype pie batch to prove the machine and concept work and once this has happened a broiler breed will replace them.

* Coco the parrot in the 80s version of ''Anime/KimbaTheWhiteLion'' averts this. He has two toes in the front and two pointing back like a real parrot does.

[[caption-width-right:350: Also, [[IncorrectAnimalNoise real roadrunners don't make]] [[{{Catchphrase}} beeping noises]].]]

* ''Film/AVPAlienVsPredator'' features a {{Cat Scare}} where a penguin steps out from behind some crates, which is fine, except that it is an African Penguin. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_penguin African Penguins]] are native to the coasts of Southern Africa not Antarctica. The only penguin species native to Antarctica are [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_penguin Emperor Penguins]] and [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adélie_penguin Adelie Penguins]].

** In "So Long, Spankie", DW has a pet budgie which ends up dying that same episode to teach an {{aesop}} about [[DeathIsASadThing death]]. His design is simplified and he doesn't even have the normal (typically blue) cere of a male budgie.

* ''Film/AVPAlienVsPredator'' features a {{Cat Scare}} where a penguin steps out from behind some crates, which is fine, except that it is an African Penguin.[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_penguin African Penguins]] are native to the coasts of Southern Africa not Antarctica. The only penguin species native to Antártica are [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_penguin Emperor Penguins]] and [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adélie_penguin Adelie Penguins]].

* ''Film/AVPAlienVsPredator'' features a {{Cat Scare}} where a penguin steps out from behind some crates, which is fine, except that it is an [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_penguin African Penguin]]. In Antarctica.

Can certainly extend to other flying creatures; many are the {{ptero|Soarer}}saurs and other {{Giant Flyer}}s that are shown constructing chicken-like nests. See also FeatherFingers, NoisyNature, ToothyBird, OstrichHeadHiding, AcrophobicBird, FlyingFlightlessBird, PenguinsAreDucks, MouthyBird, NoCartoonFish and AllAnimalsAreDogs.

* The premise of "Eagle Egg Day", a segment of ''WesternAnimation/MollyOfDenali'', is that Molly must re-position a naturalist's webcam so viewers won't miss the hatching of three bald eagle chicks. Actual raptor eggs are laid, and hatch, a day or two apart, ensuring that one chick will be younger and weaker: if there's not enough food for a trio of chicks, the youngest automatically loses out and dies rather than all three starving slowly.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'': Hayabusa, Shan-Yu's loyal pet, normally acts like a falcon (albeit [[NoisyNature with a red-tailed hawk's call]]) until the very end after getting all his feathers burnt off. He promptly starts to [[SillyAnimalSound cluck like a chicken]]. He can also run around on the ground as swiftly as a chicken, which, while [[RuleOfFunny funny]], is very hard for most falcons to do due to their anatomy. [[note]]Flightless falcons in rehab actually can and do run as their primary way of getting around, and they are surprisingly good at it. That said, [[Franchise/FinalFantasy chocobos]], they ain't.[[/note]] He also has vertical slit pupils (unknown in any bird of prey; actually there's only one bird with vertical pupils, the skimmer). Then again, weird eyes are also a prominent trait of his master, Shan-Yu.

* The entire premise of ''WesternAnimation/ChickenRun'' is that Mrs Tweedy, tiring of the low profits from egg production, decides to convert the farm to make chicken pies instead. However chickens good for egg laying make poor meat birds and vice versa, so if she had succeeded her pies would have been poor quality and unlikely to sell well. The premise ''does'' work however, if you assume that the current chickens will be used to make a prototype pie batch to prove the machine and concept work and once this has happened a broiler breed will replace them.

* ''Film/HeavenAndEarth1990'': One scene features a singing White-crowned Sparrow, which is a common enough bird in Alberta, where the film was shot ... but essentially impossible to come by in medieval Japan, where the film is set.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheThreeCaballeros'' - While the birds are either {{Funny Animal}}s or slightly cartoony, the Disney animators did [[ShownTheirWork show their work]], showcasing many obscure species. The one major misstep is the Aracuan Bird. Aracuans ''are'' real, but look and act nothing like their Disney equivalent, making the Clown of the Jungle a "take our word for it" case on par with Chuck Jones's Roadrunner.
::: If we were to compare the Aracuan to an actual Brazilian rainforest bird, it most closely resembles the capuchinbird (which shares the bald forehead and long thick feathers on the back of the head and neck). It also happens to have a really weird call (although nothing resembling the cartoon bird's hysterical voice). The name "aracuá" is given to the noisy chachalaca in Brazil. And there has to be some inspiration from Woody Woodpecker as well.

* In the 1990 Haruki Kadokawa samurai film ''Film/HeavenAndEarth1990'', one scene features a singing White-crowned Sparrow, which is a common enough bird in Alberta, where the film was shot ... but essentially impossible to come by in medieval Japan, where the film is set.

* Ollie, a seagull from Piers Baker's ''Ollie and Quentin'': whenever the character is drawn with his mouth open (he and Quentin, the lugworm, are usually [[NoMouth mouthless]]) we can see that his mouth is not in his beak but below it. As if his beak was some kind of nose.

* Hayabusa, Shan-Yu's loyal pet from ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}''. Normally he acts like a falcon (albeit [[NoisyNature with a red-tailed hawk's call]]) until the very end after getting all his feathers burnt off. He promptly starts to [[SillyAnimalSound cluck like a chicken]]. He can also run around on the ground as swiftly as a chicken, which, while [[RuleOfFunny funny]], is very hard for most falcons to do due to their anatomy. [[note]]Flightless falcons in rehab actually can and do run as their primary way of getting around, and they are surprisingly good at it. That said, [[Franchise/FinalFantasy chocobos]], they ain't.[[/note]] He also has vertical slit pupils (unknown in any bird of prey; actually there's only one bird with vertical pupils, the skimmer). Then again, weird eyes are also a prominent trait of his master, Shan-Yu.

* The [[http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1560100842/ref=sib_dp_pop_fc?ie=UTF8&p=S001#reader-link cover art]] for one edition of Preston Blair's seminal animation instruction book has a veritable flock of Palette Swapped Sparrows, some of which are downright psychedelic.

* Both averted and lampshaded in Creator/MercedesLackey's [[Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar Valdemar]] novels (the author is a falconer). While certain tribes have raptors with near-human intelligence, this is explicitly the result of a generations-long breeding program and a psychic link between handler and bird -- wild raptors are nothing like the Hawkbrothers' Bondbirds.

* Averted in ''{{Literature/Animorphs}}'': Tobias' iconic "TSEEEEEEERRRRR!" is a decent onomatopeia for the classic "bird of prey" sound in movies... because he ''is'' a red-tailed hawk.

* Captain Morgan would like to remind us that [[http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTAwMFg3NTM=/$T2eC16RHJGkE9no8hmY%28BQ9t7!6vJw~~60_35.JPG "The Parrot is Calling."]] Said parrot has horribly deformed feet just to make the "T" shape in the slogan.

Cartoon birds in starring roles tend to be the more recognizable species; anseriforms (ducks), galliforms (chickens and turkeys), strigiforms (owls), and sphenisciforms ([[EverythingsBetterWithPenguins penguins]]) are particularly popular and will all look pretty generic. In some cases, you will have to [[CartoonCreature take the writer's word for it what species they are meant to be]]. Parrots (psittaciforms) are also popular and they'll sport generic chicken-like bird feet and will either be pure green with huge yellow beaks, or have cockatoo crests and a bizarre mix of rainbow colors. Diurnal raptors (falconiforms) tend to look like an odd combination of any carnivorous bird; in particular cartoonists seem to get hawks and vultures confused with each other (and sometimes corvids, which are passeriforms, are tossed into the mix too). And there's this one especially overused cliche where virtually every bird of prey, like eagles, falcons, vultures or even ''owls'' will be portrayed with the distinctive screech of the red-tailed hawk: most infamously the bald eagle, whose real cries are far less fearsome-sounding.

** RealLife roadrunners are omnivorous, gray, about one foot long, look like little ''Velociraptor'' when walking, make pigeon-like sounds and eat rattlesnakes. But the Road Runner (yes, ''the'' Road Runner) is slightly larger and more ratite-like in appearance, beeps like a car and eats bird seed.