Birds, and why they fly off

Eight birds live in the tree on the home page. They bob, hop, and take off when your pointer gets too close. None of that is physics.

Each bird is either perched, flying, or landing. Perched birds bob a little and occasionally hop. When a timer runs out, some of them move to a free branch on their own.

If the pointer comes within a small radius on screen, the bird takes off with more lift than usual and loops out past the canopy before coming back.

Panic is just a bigger arc. Same curve, taller midpoint.

Every flight is a Catmull-Rom curve from the current perch to a free one. The bird follows the tangent for its heading, flaps while it is in the air, and settles when the curve ends.