One of the most frequent problems brought up by critics concerning the book of Genesis is the supposed contradictory creation accounts in Genesis chapters 1 and 2.
They are referring to the apparent chronological contradictions between the creation accounts in Genesis 1 and 2 where in Genesis 1 animals are created first and then man, and Genesis 2 where it seems to say that man was already there when God formed the animals. Also the trees are created before man in Genesis 1, but said to be planted after God had formed the man in Genesis 2. Also, are the birds formed out of the ground, as in Genesis 2, or “brought forth” out of water as in Genesis 1? These differences have caused some to even say that not only are these chapters contradictory, but even written by different authors.
However , not only are these not two separate creation accounts, there actually are very plausible solutions to the above problems. As far as the order of creation of animals and man, the “contradiction” is caused, as they often can be, by a translation issue. In Genesis 2:19 The verb for “formed” (yatsar in Hebrew) as in God “formed” every beast of the field, etc., can actually legitimately be translated “had formed”, as the NIV does, in the pluperfect, rather than perfect tense. The pluperfect refers to an event further in the past than another past event. The context of the passage is not so much chronology as in the first chapter, but to tell the reader that certain animals that were already in existence were brought to Adam for inspection.See reference article
In general,the second chapter of Genesis is recapping and amplifying certain events of chapter one. It is not a second chronological creation account, but simply zeroes in on the creation of man and his immediate surroundings in the garden. The trees mentioned in Genesis Two were directly planted and created by God for the Garden of Eden, and are not the same ones as were created by command in Genesis One.
Finally, a translation error produces the problem with the origin of birds. In Genesis 2:19 as noted above, the birds had been formed out of the ground, that is, from the basic elements of the earth. But in Genesis 1:20 there is an incorrect translation in the KJV and RSV versions, which says “Let the waters bring forth…fowls that may fly…” when the Hebrew actually says “Let the waters swarm with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth”. So there is no contradiction at all about where the birds were created from. See reference: Hebrew word “sharats” translation Gen 1:20
The second chapter, as noted above, is not a complete creation account like chapter 1, but gives a more detailed account of some parts of chapter 1.