A Klingon vessel type, notable for its cloaking device and its use in the Star Trek film series.
The Klingon Bird-of-Prey is a compact, winged warship used by the Klingon Empire across many decades. It is built for speed, agility and surprise, and most examples are fitted with a cloaking device. Its distinct design, with wings that can fold up or down depending on the model and a long neck leading to the command pod, became one of the most recognised silhouettes of the franchise.
A Bird-of-Prey commanded by Kruge destroyed a Starfleet vessel in the search for the Genesis device. After Kruge's defeat, Admiral Kirk and his crew took the ship for themselves. Later, to save Earth from a probe, they used that captured Bird-of-Prey, renamed the Bounty, to travel back in time to twentieth-century Earth to bring whales to the future.
The class saw heavy use by both Klingon officers and, at times, by Starfleet officers and Federation allies. In the later era, Birds-of-Prey were used by General Martok and by Klingon forces in the Dominion War. The design is closely associated with Klingon power and with Starfleet's occasionally fraught alliance.