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When I started playing 4th gen I was lucky encounter rate wasn't time based in Platinum (for the most part), I could only play during the night so if it was like HGSS I would've missed out on certain Pokémon.
Starly and Hoothoot, i always use them as i encounter them early on and i tend to linger with them for a while, they might not be the BEST but they are certainly capable of doing their flying duties!
Starly for Diamond and Platinum, Sentret for HG and Hoothoot for SS. Starly and Hoothoot are the best normal/flying types in my opinion. For Sentret in HG, though, I never had an official pure normal typpe on my team. so i decided to capture a Sentret for my team.
I'm not sure what my first Pokemon in DPPt was, but I think it was either Bidoof or Starly. I want to say it was Bidoof in Diamond (the first gen 4 game I played), but I have no clue what it was in the other versions.
In HG/SS, I think it was Hoothoot. It could have been Sentret on HG, but I think I started both games at night, so Hoothoot seems more likely.
In SS it was a Mareep that I then used in a solo run, but overall I think it was a Starly or a Shinx in Pearl. I always catch one or both of them early on, so there's a 99.999% chance that it was them and a .001% chance that it was a Kricketot.
In my Diamond, I first caught a Starly. I caught a Shinx in Platnium.
I don't exactly remember who I caught first in SS... I think it might have been a Mareep. Not too sure, though.