Happy Thanksgiving: 40 Culturally Relevant Birds

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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