HELP WITH REALISTIC MAPPING EFFECTS/ANIMALS FLYING OVERHEAD

If your only problem is that it gets stuck on trees and caves, the only thing you need to do is set the bird event as "through" and "above hero." Those are just checkboxes in events. If you need a tutorial to check the checkboxes, you're in luck, because I've just written one:

1) Open the event properties of the bird event by double-clicking on it on the map.
2) Check the box that says "through" and change the height to "above hero" in the lower left, where the event properties are.
3) Repeat step 2 for each page of the event.

I already tested that. It doesn't change anything. Also, it doesn't say allow/disallow. The box reads Forbid Event Overlap.

OK, I found it. SO instead of my previous plan, do this:
- Above Hero
- Custom Movement
- Phasing Mode
- Move right (repeat)
The phasing mode is what makes it not hit stuff. It can be turned on and off in the movement screen as LockeZ said.

Danny, my recommendation is to apply a little critical thinking to your problem. Come up with a general goal, which you've already done: Birds fly randomly overhead.

Now think about what needs to happen for this to occur, before you even start thinking about RPG Maker. There needs to be a random time interval which decides how often birds spawn. Birds will spawn either above, below, or to the sides of the player. The birds need to travel across the screen and despawn. This process needs to repeat. Etc, etc.

If you can come up with a process that details how random birds spawn and fly across the screen, now you can start applying that method in RPG Maker terminology. Now that you know you need to spawn birds relative to the player's location, how do you get the player's location in RPG Maker? How do you setup a random time interval using RPG Maker variables? How do you assign a flight path to a sprite object in RPG Maker? Etc, etc.