And birds are about 160 million years old, but they can't fly as high or as fast as airplanes. Evolution doesn't plan ahead, so it easily gets stuck in local maxima.
Birds seem to fall out of the sky a lot less often. Could be the same is true for pollen. I don’t know if I agree with the guy, but I think he’s right to encourage more science time and money spent on it.
If you want to observe birds there are some great nest cams all over the world.
The first days/weeks/months of flying is not perfect. A large predatory bird needs a lot of training and exercise. Wildlife rehabilitation is an other good source to hear about the work involved in getting wild birds to fly.