This document provides a classification of animals and characteristics of birds and mammals. It classifies animals into the kingdoms of Animalia, phylums of Chordata, and classes of Aves and Mammalia. It then describes key characteristics of birds, such as being warm-blooded, laying eggs, having feathered wings and hollow bones. Mammals are defined as the most evolved warm-blooded animals that nourish their young with mammary glands and have hair, sweat glands, movable jaws and four-chambered hearts. Whales are identified as mammals despite living in water because they give birth to live young.