Let’s talk about 鸟(niao3) ，鸭(ya1) and 鸡(ji1) today.
鸟(niao3) means bird, Please look at the ancient oracle bone characters first, which was created over 3000 years ago, the original form of Chinese characters. Doesn't it look like a bird?
The word 鸟人（niao3ren2）， do you have any idea? Birdman, haha!
鸭Ya1 means duck， it was made up by 甲 and 鸟，甲jia3 is sound part, although right now the sound is not as same as thousands years ago. 鸟niao3 is the meaning part to show it is a kind of bird.
鸡ji1 means chicken, it was made up by 又 and 鸟，again 又you4 is sound part, again it is not as same sound as you can see. 鸟niao3 is meaning part. Anyway, chicken is a bird.
Here are the orders of the characters.
You could watch the video on Youtube