鳥

Primary meaning: bird. In early texts (pre-Han), it often functions as a category marker; in divination or poetic contexts, it may symbolically represent an omen, a messenger, or a manifestation of qi. In later idiomatic constructions, the glyph may be used metaphorically to imply flight or speed.

Principally a noun. It may function as an attributive modifier depending on its position in the phrase.

When the general 鳥 is employed instead of a specific species-glyph (e.g., 鴨 duck, 鵝 goose, 鶴 crane), it typically indicates that the specific type of bird is irrelevant and only its "bird-ness"—such as flight, song, or nature as a creature of the air—is pertinent to the passage.

Simplified variant: 鸟 (U+9E1F). The phonetic value evolved from early forms to the Tang-period reading (*děu) and modern niǎo.