bird

Distinctions

of (עוף)

Root ע-ו-ף, which also gives the verb "flies." Radak (to Bereishis): the general term for any flying creature, with tzipor and kanaf as classes under it. Rabbi Chanoch Zundel of Bialystok adds a character to it, on the model of the Gemara's own split between behemah gasah and behemah dakah: an of is a bird with strong wings, even if it is physically small, typically a predator, restless because it depends on nothing but itself and is always hunting its next meal.

tzipor (ציפור)

Root צ-פ-ר. Three readings, and the Tosafos Yom Tov notes the dispute:

1. Radak (commentary to Bereishis and Sefer HaShorashim): any type of bird. The Gemara seems to suggest as much, and the column calls Chullin 139b some Talmudic precedent for it rather than a proof.
2. Sifri, followed by Rambam in his commentary to the Mishnah: tzipor is specifically a kosher bird, while of covers all birds. This is how the Mishnah (Chullin 12:2) knows that shiluach hakein (Devarim 22:6-7) applies only to a kosher bird, since the pasuk there says tzipor.
3. Ramban (to Vayikra 14:4), who also rejects Radak but narrows the word differently: small birds that wake in the morning and chirp, the word coming from Aramaic tzafra, "morning."

Rabbi Chanoch Zundel joins the last two. A tzipor is the flimsier, weaker bird, not a predator, content with whatever man or nature hands it; because it trusts another to feed it, it can sleep at night and wake to sing in the morning. That is exactly Ramban's dawn-chirper, and it is exactly the Mishnah's kashrus criterion: the Torah simply lists the non-kosher birds (Vayikra 11:13-19), and it is the Mishnah (Chullin 3:6) that reveals the criterion, that any predatory bird is non-kosher. So Ramban's tzipor and Rambam's kosher tzipor turn out to describe the same creature. The mussar he draws: one who trusts that Hashem provides can rest; one who believes only in his own hands is never at ease.

kanaf (כנף)

Root כ-נ-ף. Literally "wing," and used for a bird only by way of its wings, so its focus is the wing rather than the creature. Rashi to Bereishis 7:14: the clause kol kanaf comes to include every winged thing, grasshoppers among them, which kol tzipor had not covered. Radak makes it the class term for winged insects: grasshoppers, wasps, flies.

Rendering guidance

• Bereishis 7:14, כל עוף למינהו כל צפור כל כנף: keep the three distinct. "Every of after its kind, every bird, every winged thing" carries Rashi's inclusion; "every bird... every bird... every bird" does not.
• In a shiluach hakein passage, tzipor is load-bearing for the halachah. Render it "bird" and gloss the Sifri and Rambam reading, or write "kosher bird" outright if the passage is deriving the din.
• Where the sense is the dawn songbird (Ramban), "songbird" or "small bird" beats plain "bird," especially in a poetic or mussar passage that leans on the bird's trust and its morning song.
• Trap: English "bird" will absorb both of and tzipor. Keep "fowl" for of in a Torah-legal setting (of tahor, of tamei), and reserve "bird" for tzipor. For kanaf, "winged creature" is worth the extra word, since the whole point is that it is not restricted to birds.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Fowl Language and Poultry," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 18 Cheshvan 5777 (2016-11-19), https://articles.ohr.edu/articles/fowl-language-and-poultry; raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/7009-fowl-language-and-poultry.md. Primary loci: Bereishis 7:14 with Rashi and Radak; Radak, Sefer HaShorashim s.v. צפר; Chullin 139b; Mishnah Chullin 12:2 with Rambam's commentary, citing Sifri; Devarim 22:6 and 22:7; Ramban to Vayikra 14:4; Vayikra 11:13 through 11:19; Mishnah Chullin 3:6; Tosafos Yom Tov to the Mishnah.