remembering how as a kid there were these reconstructions of a hypothetical Troodon descendant - which looked a lot like a Gray Alien.
But of course there ARE intelligent, social, tool-using manaraptoran descendants, and they don't look like that, because they're crows and ravens.
@Leucrotta I know right?? even then it was like "wait... why are you making this dinosaur look like a human?? wtf??" and nowdays it's like "OH FUCK YOU, just give them opposable claws and you've got your sentient species right there, don't you EVEN with that flat faced featherless digitigrade bullshit like that's the default" GROWL GROWL SNARL *cough cough* er... sorry. XD
@Leucrotta barring all the other debates about what sentience is, I'd say the baseline is "can they build complex tools?" (which begs the question "what complex tools would they need to build?" BUT ANYWAY) it'd be difficult to, say, tie two sticks together with vine or sinew with your beak and one foot while standing on the other foot--but not impossible. no wait they weave/build nests all the time. HMMM.
@green Y'know... corvids are deffo already there basically, but the big way they manipulate stuff is the beak. Owls have basically feet that work a little like human hands. I wonder if that'd work as a sapient bird design?