How much "bird" are we talking about here? I know you don't want some anthropomorphic bird because you're afraid of some furry-esque result but a purely bird model the other way may not work. I could see an inbetween kind of like some interpretations of Sakana where his body his very fish but he has legs and his flippers are hands. Basically a bird in a golden pheasant in a suit with wings operating like hands for some stuff.
Kind of something like this (not an exact design but a general concept of what you might be going for)
probably going for a demihuman design i guess?
probably the likes of a harpy or any other avian adjacent race