Looking at one of the Angry Birds walkthru videos (1-12) I noticed that the birds split into 3 or 4 birds halfway through the flight. How do you do that?
Red birds actually pack quite a punch. The farther they travel before hitting the target, the harder they hit (hint... high trajectories give them a lot of speed and hit really hard), as well they're great for knocking over tall structures. They're more like a battering ram.
red birds=increased punch with distance
blue birds=ability to split into several smaller birds
yellow birds=ability to speed up when tapping the screen