I am mostly a bird law expert, but according to Google Scholar, my papers have been cited over 500 times... so, can I weigh in on this?
Mantis shrimp, not a bird, rely on the lethal force of their punch to acquire prey, so it possible Jones had intent to kill. However, birds don’t really have any punching capacity of any kind. Forelimbs in all but a few species are far too important for locomotion to risk fracturing their hollow bones. That means it is also possible that jones didn’t even mean to punch the guy, just sort of flap his arms in an attempt to get away. Which leads us to the inescapable conclusion that this is a dumb argument.