Thanks for your feedback. You're not the only one who gets attached to his birds.
Nice score for a first run, I'm sure you'll do much better from the second run on. You can speed up anytime you need a little boost, by pressing the Space bar and move your main bird. This drains the dash bar on the top of the screen as long as Space is not released but after a cooldown, it replenishes so you can accelerate again! Use it wisely and you'll improve your score.