Over a century a go "bird" was a word used to describe something good, like cool is today, it is believed back in 1899 in Atlantic city a pretty good golfer called Ab Smith was playing with some friends. On the last hole he hit his shot to a few inches of the hole on his approach and called out "That was a bird of a shot!" He then made the putt. He and his playing partners subsequently decided to call a score one under par a birdie.
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One-under-par. (-1). The term is believed to have originated during a game at the Atlantic City Country Club in Northfield, NJ in either 1899 or 1903. It seems that one day, three golfers - William Poultney Smith, founding member of Pine Valley, his brother Ab Smith, and George Crump (who was later to build Pine Valley, about 45 miles away) - were playing together when Crump hit his second shot only inches from the cup on a par-four hole after his first shot had struck a bird in flight. Simultaneously, the Smith brothers exclaimed that Crump's shot was "a bird." Crump's short putt left him one under par for the hole, and from that day the three of them referred to such a score as a "birdie." In short order, the entire membership of the club began using the term and, since as a resort the club had a lot of out-of-town visitors, the expression spread and caught the fancy of all American golfers. From Wikipedia.
A birdie is always one stroke below a par. Say when a par is a score of 4, that means a birdie is a score of 3. Then if a par is a score of 5, then a birdie is a score of 4. And then you get the idea.!!