There is a recent report (http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/150428/ncomms7987/full/ncomms7987.html) of a very early fossil of an ornithuromorpha bird from fossil measures in China. These, clearly flighted birds, were around in the early Cretaceous period, making them at least 5 million years older than previous frequent flyers. The legs of the fossil suggest that the species was a type of wader that rooted in sediment. So, birds were contemporaries of dinosaurs but their delicate structure (bones and feathers) presumably made them less prone to fossilisation.
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