FAQ: What does it mean when a bird flies into a home?

Answer: According to some folklore, when a bird flies into the house or building, it presages a forthcoming death.

Others maintain that whenever a bird flies inside a house, it foretells an important message is arriving soon.

Yet, according to my Mother it means, “You must get the bird out before it poops on the furniture”...well that's what she said when she had to shoosh a very frightened bird out of the living room through the open sliding glass door to the backyard. [After this incident my Dad finally arranged for the chimney to be capped and sealed. (We never burned anything in the fireplace anyway.)]

When I was in my 20’s at college in "D. Hall"--which held the English Dept. and the English classes--I passed by an empty classroom and I heard a distressed fluttering and chirping. I looked inside. It had been a warm spring day. A very small sparrow was on the floor and was fluttering up and down trying to get back out a window that was cracked open but the hanging window blinds were making it hard for the bird to get back out. It was already tiring--poor thing. I approached; it hopped away.

Now, I'd been on Audubon Society bird walks and nature walks with my parents many times; I had learned how to move in ways that did not seem threatening to wildlife. I must have spent 20 minutes moving gently and slowly to finally be able to scoop up the little bird. The little thing was still very frightened. Moving oh so slowly, I glided to the open window. I quietly, carefully moved the blinds out of the way and slipped my hand through the open window. The bird—still breathing hard with fear--suddenly noticed it was outside (magically!) though it was still sitting on my palm. It looked about a bit puzzled, then it hopped off my hand onto the window-ledge outside. It took wing and FLEW...

Neither of these birds were “death omens”; nobody in our family died…nobody got sick…No close friends passed away either. 

I didn't get a message either.

Not everything is a “sign” or a “portant”.

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