Birds have long thought to be associated with otherworldly powers - not other planetary but other worldly, as in the spirit world. Their ability to fly far and high in ages gone by gave them a mystical quality that many looked to for signs and portents, and one of the most common 'bird omen wives tale' was that if a bird flew into your house through an opened door or window, death was not far behind.
The Bird Omen Wives Tale
In a home lies a sickly person, with family members standing vigil nearby. The health of the ill is in question and everyone is concerned that things could take a turn for the worse. A sudden rapping at the window of the sick room causes a start and those in the room turn to see a black crow sitting on the sill, tap, tap, tapping at the glass. Its insistence is unnerving - what does it want? Eventually the crow flies off, but not before leaving the concerned family members with a chilling superstition that their loved one is doomed to die.
The variations on this theme are many, but all fairly consistent; a bird tries or succeeds to get into a home, and this is considered a sign of imminent death. In some versions the bird strikes the window in flight (sometimes getting up and doing it again) or lands on the sill and strikes the window with its beak. Other versions have the bird enter the home through an open window or door. Should a bird get access to the interior of a home with no visible means of entry, the superstition is that it is equivocal to an intruder alarm tuned to sense death itself going off.
The Origin of the Bird Omen Wives Tale
There is no one source of the 'bird flying into house equals death' wives' tale, but it is a common enough superstition nonetheless. In days gone by people were prone to look for many superstitious or mystical answers to every day questions, and some questions that were not so run of the mill (such as “why must my loved one die?”). When something out of the ordinary happened people were quick to ascribe to it some mystical significance, whether or not there was a logical, natural explanation to it.
Any time a bird flies into a house it certainly is an unusual experience. Birds, being creatures of the outdoors and mainly shy of man to boot, do not typically try to get inside a dwelling. Some may get confused, thanks to an expertly cleaned glass window and give itself a braining on a house. Others may land on a handy window ledge and peck at its own reflection out of curiosity. As for a bird flying in through an open window, taking a break on a chair back, and then leaving, who knows? But it certainly is behaviour convenient to attach a sense of a message being delivered.
No Birds In My House!
The idea of birds being associated with death is very strong in some people, to the point that they won’t have decorations of birds in their home. One famous report has actress Lucile Ball tearing wallpaper out of a new home because she discovered little birds in the pattern that she didn’t notice before.
Carrying on with the bird theme why not take a look at our superstitious article about Saluting Magpies.
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