Humans evolved from monkeys

[Aractus]

Let's talk about this for a minute.

i.e. birds that are only distantly related to each other evolved similar features to each other (such as flight) independently of each other.

Those that study such things believe the last common ancestor of all currently living species of birds lived 85 to 95 million years ago during the late Cretaceous period. That single species, whatever it was, had probably already developed most of features common to modern birds including flight. There were probably other related species living at the same time with similar features such as flight that evolved along divergent paths, but most of the features common to modern birds all date back to that single species that lived 85 to 95 million years ago.

Well not all birds developed flight, and that scenario doesn't take into account cross-breeding which allows genes from another species to be experimented with. It's virtually impossible to say with certainty that a common ancestor existed "here" instead of simply cross-breeding. Same thing with humans and chimps - we have a common ancestor at some point, we have to. But 7 million years ago did we really have a common ancestor? Or did our species of the time cross-breed and make it look as if there was a common ancestor?

Are they saying that no other animal developed flight independently since then?

Of course not, bats, flies, bees, spiders*, ants, and literally dozens of other creatures that can at least "glide" (*no modern spider can fly but there are species that can glide), all developed different ways of flying.