Thursday’s meal may not be a crowning moment for the avian kind, but birds have done well making a name for themselves in pop culture. From the lovable Woodstock to Harper Lee’s lessons in morality, the trendy act of microblogging to birds that actually microblog, they have left their tiny tracks all over our consciousness. With anthropomorphic birds (see Big Bird), humans channeling birds (see Björk), and even birds killing humans (see Bird Flu), it seems that the two species have never been more closely linked. Below the jump, we’ve rounded up 40 cultural it birds who did better for themselves than the one on your Thanksgiving table.
1. Angry Birds
2. Big Bird
3. The Birds
4. “Put a Bird On It,” Portlandia
5. Tweety
6. Bye Bye Birdie
7. Toucan Sam
8. Mother Goose
9. Twitter
10. Emperor penguins, March of the Penguins
11. “Blackbird,” by The Beatles
12. Hungover Owls
13. Donald and Daisy
14. The Three Caballeros
15. Woodstock
16. “Shagged by a Rare Parrot,” BBC
17. @Hungry_Birds, Latvian birds tweeting
18. To Kill a Mockingbird
19. The Black Crowes
20. Roadrunner
21. Bird Flu
22. Scuttle, Ariel the Little Mermaid
23. Penguin Books
24. Corny, iconic pigeon shot by Piazza San Marco, Venice
25. Zazu
26. Black Swan
27. Iago
28. Björk’s swan dress
29. The Mighty Ducks
30. Peeps
31. The infamous stork
32. Harry Potter’s pet owl, Hedwig
33. Dancing flamingos, Fantasia
34. Sonny the Cuckoo
35. “Angry Birds Peace Treaty”
36. Mumble, Happy Feet
37. Chicken Run
38. Chester, Hey Arnold!
39. Dumbo’s unfortunately racialized crow friends, Dumbo
40.”Free Bird,” by Lynyrd Skynyrd
