The Crow and the Sparrow
To talk about general facts or beliefs, Croatian often uses the reflexive pronoun se with verbs to create impersonal statements, such as smatra se (it is considered). We can use this to describe the intelligence of the crow (vrana).
When adding most case endings to sparrow (vrabac), the final -a drops out (a "fleeting a"). This causes the b and c to touch, and the b changes to a p to make pronunciation easier. For example, in the accusative plural, vrabac becomes vrapce.
Waterfowl: Ducks, Geese, and Swans
When you want to compare two animals, use a comparative adjective followed by od (from/than) and the genitive case. For instance, to say a goose (guska) is bigger than a duck (patka), patka takes the genitive ending to become patke.
For short masculine nouns like swan (labud), Croatian usually inserts the syllable -ov- before adding plural case endings. In the accusative plural, labud becomes labudove.
Folklore and Seasons: Storks and Swallows
Just like smatra se, you can use govori se (it is said) to share traditional wisdom, like the famous myth about the stork (roda).
To describe the migration of the swallow (lastavica), you use the preposition na (to/onto) followed by the accusative case to show the direction of movement, such as na jug (to the south).
Birds of the Forest: Prepositions of Location
When describing where forest birds hunt and live, you will often use prepositions like iznad (above) and ispod (under/below). Both of these require the noun that follows them to be in the genitive case.
Notice how the plural planine (mountains) becomes planina, and kora (bark) becomes kore when talking about the flight of the falcon (sokol) and the pecking of the woodpecker (djetlić).
Finally, we can use one more impersonal verb phrase, pretpostavlja se (it is assumed), to describe the mischievous reputation of the magpie (svraka).