Troy-

To be honest, I really don't know if all the warnings are about cooked or raw birds, I don't recall any distinction ever being made. But I have often wondered how cats managed for so long on their own if bird bones were indeed so dangerous! But, yes, sadly I have heard of a cat dying from a chicken bone. And it was a cooked chicken.

Also, you are right about cats being able to handle many bacteria that we humans can't. Acutally, most food poisoning is not even caused by a bacterial infection, per se, it is caused by toxins produced by the bacteria. If the host organism isn't sensitive to the toxin, no harm is done.