Birds are NOT Mammals

I (re-)learned this in Bettina’s nursery school today… Birds are NOT mammals.

Mammals have mammary glands, hence the word “mammal”. Birds do not bear live young like mammals, they lay eggs. They do not produce milk to feed their young. They do not have hair, they have feathers. They metabolize nutrients differently, they have a different digestive tract, and they have lighter bones.

Birds belong to the class Aves. They are warm blooded like mammals though.

Oh well, I thought I was confident in my answer that birds are mammals.

It only takes a nursery kid to point out my mistake.

~florent flora