Bird omens: Origin, Meaning and When It Actually Started

Q: How old is this superstition?

First recorded: Roman augury, formalised by the 4th century BC. Rome had professional augurs who read the flight of birds before public decisions, and no magistrate acted against the auspices. Modern bird omens are the domestic remnant of what was once a formal branch of the state.

When it actually starts

How old is this one

First recorded Roman augury, formalised by the 4th century BC

That makes it about 1,676 years old

Rank by age 14 oldest of 40 dated here

Category Animals

Searched 1,180 a month

Rome had professional augurs who read the flight of birds before public decisions, and no magistrate acted against the auspices. Modern bird omens are the domestic remnant of what was once a formal branch of the state.

What people say

A bird in the house means death; a bird striking a window is a warning.

What is going on

Birds hit windows because glass reflects sky — roughly a billion collisions a year in the United States alone. The cause is architectural.

Where it applies. Widespread, with the meaning varying by species more than by country.

Other animals superstitions

Black cat crossing your path 3,670/mo Owls as omens 1,090/mo Crows as omens 790/mo Ladybug superstitions 390/mo Death omens 310/mo Spider superstitions 170/mo Butterfly omens 110/mo Cricket superstitions 90/mo Bat superstitions 90/mo

Recorded around the same time

Bird omens is the 14th oldest of the 40 dated superstitions here. Of those, 6 are younger than a century and 5 predate the common era.

Right hand superstitions 50 Money superstitions 50 Pregnancy superstitions 1300 Food superstitions 1300

First-recorded dates are the earliest documented appearance in written sources, not the earliest possible origin — an unrecorded practice can be older. How the dating works and where it is uncertain →