muffin,. .Your instructor's tip is a sound one, but the birds align with the wind not because of the need for rapid take-off, but rather that they can't do otherwise without risking life and limb. If parked downind, their feathers bloom open and their drag increases considerable, so that they can be torn lose from their perches and tumbled. Into the wind, they streamline quite nicely, and their low drag, based on 100,000,000 years of good design and development (any Creationists out there? Sorry!) make it imperitive that they help you find the wind direction.