Monday, October 13, 2008
Bird Hits a Window
Have you heard people talk about this? At the hospice place where I work, I sometimes hear a nurse, or even a family member say, "A bird hit the window this morning, I'm sure mom's getting ready to go soon." In fact, it's not unusual to have a day when several rooms have a constant barrage of tapping from birds flying into the glass.
I was surprised to see how entrenched this symbol of the bird is in our culture. In case it's a new idea for you let me explain:
"Bird flies at the window, Death knocks at the door" is a phrase that has been repeated by kids for centuries. The roots of this reach far back. Because of their ability to fly, birds have eternally been connected with the heavens/afterlife. Birds aren't just associated with death, but life as well, as in the common story that a Stork delivers new babies into this world.
There really is no culture exempt. In Egypt, China and Japan the Phoenix symbolizes rebirth, from ancient myths of the bird constantly being reborn. In Syria, Eagles are on tombs to lead the souls in the afterlife. In the Jewish and Christian culture, it is the dove that represents the soul. Both the Celts and Greeks believed the soul would reappear as a bird after death. There is an Islamic tradition that believes that dead souls remain as birds until judgment day, whereas the Hindu's use birds to symbolize the form the soul takes in between earthly lives.
With so many cultures viewing birds as the representation of human souls, you can guess when a bird suddenly acts strangely, we take notice. Before there were glass windows, the superstition was that if a bird flew into your house and perched on someone's chair, then a death would occur within that home in a year's time. Now, not too many birds make it inside, but all it takes is the unusual event of a bird trying to get in, hitting the glass pane, and then when an untimely death occurs the two events become connected.
Such was the case for Lucille Ball, who at the age of 3 recalled that a bird flew in her house and became trapped the day her father died. She was so convinced of this superstition that she refused to stay in hotels that had bird wallpaper or pictures of birds on the walls.
Some may wonder is one type of bird more ominous with this superstition? It seems there are several to worry about. In the Cherokee tradition it is a red bird that provides the connection with the deceased. The Red Bird Center provides the story behind this belief. The other birds to be leery of if they are trying to fly in your house are the sparrow, the robin and the raven.
Anyone with stories of their own?
References:
http://www.snopes.com/oldwives/bird.asp
http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Be-Ca/Birds-in-Mythology.html
Pictures used: "Bird in Hand" Victor Schrager has an entire collection of these here
"Start to finish" from Two Dresses Studios here
19 Responses to “Bird Hits a Window”
October 19, 2008 2:52 PM
Interesting. Is there a possible parallel to the superstition that deaths come in threes?
I couldn't figure out how to post an mp3 to the site. But I am including partial lyrics to the Sufjan Stevens' tune "Casimir Pulaski Day."
Lyrics to Casimir Pulaski Day :
Golden rod and the 4-H stone
The things I brought you
When I found out you had cancer of the bone
Your father cried on the telephone
And he drove his car to the Navy yard
Just to prove that he was sorry ...
.... In the morning when you finally go
And the nurse runs in with her head hung low
And the cardinal hits the window ...
You can find the song on iTunes and I'm sure elsewhere. It's from his "Illinois" album.
October 19, 2008 8:07 PM
Thanks JerseyRn! I think you read my mind. The Casimir Pulaski Day song is coming up in a post in a few weeks and is what partially prompted this post looking up this interesting superstition. So stay tuned...
October 20, 2008 11:31 PM
Amy actually beat me to the punch on Casimir Pulaski Day. I was planning on writing on it and I saw that she had already scheduled a post for it in a few weeks. That song was one of the songs that made me want to start an arts blog on Pallimed.
A couple of Google searches for some other bird associations.
A book: Chasing Redbird about: "Chasing Redbird is a complex and exciting work of fiction, that explores real issues teenagers are dealing with, including death, identity, and relationships."
A book of poetry by Mary Oliver: "Red Bird" comes three years after the death of her long-time partner, muse and literary agent, the photographer Molly Malone Cook.
August 5, 2009 7:38 PM
I might just sound like a superstitious weirdo. When my mom was younger a bird hit a window and my German grandma (her mom) said that when a bird hits a window someone is going to die. After that, my moms uncle died.
Just this summer, on June 25th, I was feeling sick. Me and my mom heard something thud into our patio door. My mom said "uh Oh, do you know what that means?" so she explained it and the story above this one. We weren't really worried about it and went about our business. A while later I took a benadryl thinking it was allergies. It made me drowsy and I zonked out on the couch, when I woke up disoriented, I looked at the TV, Michael Jackson had died.
I am a Lutheran I believe in GOd so think what you want but that dosen't seem like normal behavior.
August 6, 2009 10:18 AM
Anonymous,
Thanks for sharing your story. I think you perfectly describe the way that superstitions begin. Event A happens, followed by event B. Maybe it happens again. Then the next time event A happens we start looking for event B and inevitably find it. Now are they really linked or is it just a coincidence? I think this is something we see often in medicine when all we have is anecdotal evidence about certain treatments or procedures. That's why we do studies. Eliminate the bias. Someone needs to do a Bird Hitting Window study.
June 13, 2010 10:59 PM
Just posted "Do it again" by Nada Surf which could easily be seen as a song about impending loss and mentions 'just sitting here waiting for birds to sing.' I could see that as birds singing means things will get better (a la Snow White) or the classic bird = death theme we have seemed to hit upon as if the dying person's spirit/characteristics has been transferred to the bird who now sings and flies away.
While researching birds and songs and the relation to death and dying I also stumbled upon The Grateful Dead's Bird Song. Pretty easy when you google 'dead bird song'.
Apparently Robert Hunter wrote it as a tribute to Janis Joplin and later changed the gender to reference the death of Jerry Garcia.
July 15, 2010 1:23 PM
the day a bird flew into a window, my dad had to go to the hospital to have his appendix removed! a bird just flew into our window a few minutes ago...yikes!
February 28, 2011 8:28 AM
My Great Grandma died, a Robin hit the window. My Great Grandpa died, a Cardinal hit a window. My Grandpa died, a Cardinal hit the window (that was his favorite bird). When my Grandma passed, she passed away in North Carolina where she used to feed Gold Finches. I was raised by my Grandparents in the south. The day after the funeral We came up to Michigan. A Gold Finch had hit my Mom's front door. Keep in mind that Gold Finches are very rare in Mi. I thought I would share this information, after trying to research the possibilities of why this would happen.
March 16, 2011 11:54 PM
My Great Grandma died, a Robin hit the window. My Great Grandpa died, a Cardinal hit a window. My Grandpa died, a Cardinal hit the window (that was his favorite bird). When my Grandma passed, she passed away in North Carolina where she used to feed Gold Finches. I was raised by my Grandparents in the south. The day after the funeral We came up to Michigan. A Gold Finch had hit my Mom's front door. Keep in mind that Gold Finches are very rare in Mi. I thought I would share this information, after trying to research the possibilities of why this would happen.
March 16, 2011 11:54 PM
Just posted "Do it again" by Nada Surf which could easily be seen as a song about impending loss and mentions 'just sitting here waiting for birds to sing.' I could see that as birds singing means things will get better (a la Snow White) or the classic bird = death theme we have seemed to hit upon as if the dying person's spirit/characteristics has been transferred to the bird who now sings and flies away.
While researching birds and songs and the relation to death and dying I also stumbled upon The Grateful Dead's Bird Song. Pretty easy when you google 'dead bird song'.
Apparently Robert Hunter wrote it as a tribute to Janis Joplin and later changed the gender to reference the death of Jerry Garcia.
March 16, 2011 11:54 PM
I might just sound like a superstitious weirdo. When my mom was younger a bird hit a window and my German grandma (her mom) said that when a bird hits a window someone is going to die. After that, my moms uncle died.
Just this summer, on June 25th, I was feeling sick. Me and my mom heard something thud into our patio door. My mom said "uh Oh, do you know what that means?" so she explained it and the story above this one. We weren't really worried about it and went about our business. A while later I took a benadryl thinking it was allergies. It made me drowsy and I zonked out on the couch, when I woke up disoriented, I looked at the TV, Michael Jackson had died.
I am a Lutheran I believe in GOd so think what you want but that dosen't seem like normal behavior.
March 16, 2011 11:54 PM
Amy actually beat me to the punch on Casimir Pulaski Day. I was planning on writing on it and I saw that she had already scheduled a post for it in a few weeks. That song was one of the songs that made me want to start an arts blog on Pallimed.
A couple of Google searches for some other bird associations.
A book: Chasing Redbird about: "Chasing Redbird is a complex and exciting work of fiction, that explores real issues teenagers are dealing with, including death, identity, and relationships."
A book of poetry by Mary Oliver: "Red Bird" comes three years after the death of her long-time partner, muse and literary agent, the photographer Molly Malone Cook.
April 25, 2011 9:50 AM
Interesting string of posts. I'm an ornithologist and the son of one, and had never heard this association with death and birds hitting the window.
Amber- our experiment can start now.
A bird hit our window last Thursday, though actually this is not an unusual occurrence at our house as we have a sun room that sticks out the back of the house and is elevated above the walkout basement level so birds see windows on both sides of the room and think they can fly through.
As of now no one is ill. No one is dying in the family. I'm not superstitious but not asking for trouble either.
April 25, 2011 10:03 AM
Objective evidence is important. Must look up Type I and II errors, because
the difference between correlation and causation is important but often
overlooked.
May 24, 2011 9:14 AM
My sister, niece and I were with my father at the time he died, and at the exact moment of his last breath, a bird flew into the window of the room we were in. Later when I looked out the window a bird was perched across the way on a rooftop nearby, sitting quietly and appeared to be staring at our room. As you can imagine it was very disconcerting because the bird the hit the window at such a speed that it sounded like it could have broken it, and because we were so emotionally wrought, for this to have happened during that intense moment, it just startled us very violently.
May 24, 2011 8:59 PM
I imagine that would be pretty startling. Thank you for sharing your story hear. This is one of our more popular posts here, so by sharing you are helping other people put their own experience into perspective.
Interestingly, many buildings these days have reflective glass that is confusing to birds too, so i wonder if that is increasing the frequency of bird hits. Here is a link from the Audubon society on minimizing window collisions: http://web4.audubon.org/bird/at_home/SafeWindows.html Obviously something to consider when building a hospital, nursing home or hospice facility.
September 27, 2011 3:15 PM
Once yesterday and twice today birds flew into windows at my house. Yesterday a dear friend passed. We shall wait and see.
March 18, 2012 10:28 AM
A bird entered our home the week of Halloween. My husband told me of the superstition regarding death coming to your home that I had never heard of before that time. Within 2 weeks my father died unexpectedly. I had a bluebird repeatedly tap and fly into the window in our sunroom for over a week on a daily basis. The following week my great aunt passed and then the week following her death my cousin Sharon passed away. Since they passed I have not seen the bluebird in my yard.
April 7, 2012 9:05 PM
One day while my dad was sick my mother, my husband and I were sitting at the kitchen table after a meal. This little sparrow was landing on a suction hook looking at us,fluttering its wings. We took down the suncatcher, maybe he thought it was an opening. It kept coming back, we took down the hook, washed the window and it kept returning. We were getting aggravated and concerned about the bird with this thumping on the glass. Next day it went to other windows where we were sitting in living room. The next day my dad passed. Later I found out about the legend.
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