I'd read this with commas around 'like', rather than with a period after it:
"... how birds look, like, I'm afraid"
works as a sentence while
"... how birds look like. I'm afraid"
is both wrong, like you point out, but also sounds much more serious than the jokey tone I'd expect from a message without punctuation and capitalization
No they're asking how do birds look like the way they do. In which case the answer is that a bird's body evolved to be streamlined and lightweight in order to fly more efficiently. /s