Because there is no air in space, birds cannot fly, although some have been brought to live on space stations in the past. 32 chicken embryos were carried into space by American astronauts during the Discovery STS-29 mission. Japanese quails had been used in space experiments by Russian astronauts even prior to that trip (mostly with their eggs) Adult birds cannot fly outside of a space station because they have never been sent into space.
In space, a bird would need to do the same sorts of things at both ends of the flight. It would need to flap a lot at the beginning to build up some speed, and it would need to flap a lot at the end to slow down (or it could do what humans do at the end of their weightless flights and run into a wall). In the middle of the flight, the bird would simply glide. It doesnt have to expend any energy during the flight because gravity isnt pulling it down.
As for what a bird could do on board the space station, no one has actually tried it, most likely due to hygienic concerns. What would happen to a bird released into a large open area within the space station, though?
The lingering, unknown question is this: Is a bird smart enough to adjust to things in a zero-gravity environment? Or is flying in gravity so instinctive that a bird cant adjust? Birds are remarkably smart, so chances are that a domesticated bird would figure it out with a little practice.
Think about what a bird does on Earth. It flaps its wings a lot to take off, it flaps its wings while its flying to stay in the air, and then it flaps its wings a lot when it lands to decelerate. Some birds, like hawks, are extremely good at gliding. They can stay in the air for long periods of time without any flapping once theyre airborne.
A bird’s wings would give it a significant advantage over humans in this scenario. The bird’s wings and tail would continue to function normally inside an air-filled space station. So the bird can turn, accelerate and decelerate mid-flight. Humans are incapable of doing this because, once they take off from the wall, their flight is essentially straight ahead until they strike the wall on the other side. If birds used their wings and tails appropriately, they would have a great deal of control when flying in the space station, but they would also need to make some significant adjustments to account for their weightlessness.