Parva avis ad nidum volat.

• parva = small
• avis = bird
• ad = to or toward
• nidum = nest
• volat = flies

So the sentence means The small bird flies to the nest or A small bird flies to a nest, depending on context.

Because parva has to agree with avis.

In Latin, adjectives agree with the nouns they describe in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here, avis is a feminine singular nominative noun, so the adjective must also be feminine singular nominative:

• masculine: parvus
• feminine: parva
• neuter: parvum

So parva avis means small bird with the adjective correctly matched to the noun.

Avis is in the nominative singular.

We know this because it is the subject of the sentence, the one doing the action. The bird is the thing that flies, so it must be in the nominative case.

In this sentence:

• avis = subject → nominative
• volat = the verb
• ad nidum = a prepositional phrase showing direction

Nidum is in the accusative singular because it follows the preposition ad.

The preposition ad usually takes the accusative case and often means:

• to
• toward
• up to

So:

• nidus = nest as a dictionary form
• nidum = nest in the accusative singular

That is why Latin says ad nidum for to the nest.

Latin often uses ad + accusative to show motion toward a place.

So ad nidum clearly means to the nest or toward the nest.

Sometimes Latin can express motion to a place without ad, but that is mainly with certain kinds of place words, such as:

• names of cities
• names of small islands
• a few special nouns like domum = home

For an ordinary noun like nest, Latin normally uses ad.

Volat is a third-person singular present active indicative form of volare, meaning to fly.

That tells us:

• third person = he/she/it
• singular = one subject
• present tense = happening now or generally
• active = the subject performs the action

So volat means he flies, she flies, or it flies.
Since the subject is avis = bird, we translate it as the bird flies or a bird flies.

Classical Latin does not have articles like English the and a/an.

So avis can mean:

• a bird
• the bird

And nidum can mean:

• a nest
• the nest

Which one is best depends on context. If the meaning has already been given to the learner as The small bird flies to the nest, that is a perfectly natural translation, but the Latin itself does not explicitly mark the or a.

Yes. Latin word order is more flexible than English because the endings show each word’s role.

So these can all express basically the same idea:

• Parva avis ad nidum volat
• Avis parva ad nidum volat
• Ad nidum parva avis volat
• Parva ad nidum avis volat

However, word order can affect emphasis or style.
The version given is a very straightforward, beginner-friendly order:

• adjective + noun
• prepositional phrase
• verb at the end

That final verb position is especially common in Latin.

Usually, yes: avis, avis is normally feminine.

That is why the adjective is parva.

However, learners should know that grammatical gender in Latin does not always match natural gender. A noun can be grammatically feminine even if it refers to a male animal in some context. In this sentence, though, the important point is simply that avis is treated as a feminine noun grammatically.

Latin can place adjectives either before or after the noun, so both of these are possible:

• parva avis
• avis parva

The difference is usually not huge in a simple sentence like this. The version with the adjective first is very natural and may slightly highlight the quality small.

For a beginner, the main thing to remember is not the position, but the agreement:

• parva must match avis

The dictionary forms are:

• parvus, parva, parvum = small
• avis, avis = bird
• ad = to, toward
• nidus, nidi = nest
• volo, volare, volavi, volatum = fly

This is useful because the words in a sentence are often not in their dictionary form:

• nidum comes from nidus
• volat comes from volare
• parva comes from parvus/parva/parvum