BIRD was an open source implementation of an Internet protocol suite routing daemon providing features like Routing Information Protocol (RIP), Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) for Unix like systems.

BIRD is a recursive acronym for BIRD Internet routing daemon. BIRD is a fully functional dynamic IP routing daemon for Unix like systems such as Linux and BSD family. Initially the project was developed as a school project at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague,

Several features of BIRD are

  • Both IPv4 and IPv6
  • Multiple routing tables
  • Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)
  • Routing Information Protocol (RIP)
  • Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)
  • Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD)
  • Static routes
  • IPv6 Router Advertisements
  • Inter-table protocol
  • Command-line interface (using the `birdc' client)
  • Powerful language for route filtering
  • Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD ports

The BIRD user guide can be found on http://bird.network.cz/.