Billie Eilish first previewed "Birds of a Feather" on May 13, 2024, through a teaser trailer for the third season of the Netflix series Heartstopper.

[4] Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times described "Birds of a Feather" as a "breezy neo-new-wave jam",[6] Alisa Ali of NPR wrote of the song that "poignant lyricism hides amid the dark humor and [Eilish's] clever cadence makes for one of the singer's most memorable vocal performances".

[25] In its fourth week the then-album cut jumped from the eleventh to the ninth spot on the chart becoming its peak position as a non-single track.

[29] In the United Kingdom, "Birds of a Feather" debuted at number nine on the UK Singles Chart during the week of the album's release.

[33] In the video, Eilish is shown singing in an abandoned office building while being dragged around by the arm by an invisible force; Sarah Kearns of Hypebeast interpreted this as "a symbol that seems to relay the feeling of being pulled in different directions by someone who isn't actually present.

The performance was part of the Olympic flag handover from the city of Paris to Los Angeles (who is set to host in 2028) and was recorded the day before at Long Beach.