A reader has shared her own experiences of an association between birds and death, following an article about a woman who found comfort in birds during bereavement.
Birds and Bereavement
Angela Smith from Norwich was responding to a piece about Helen Harris, who described how birds behaved strangely towards her after her husband died. Smith notes that the experience chimes with that of a friend who had many close encounters with robins after the death of her father. Unlike Harris, however, the friend believed that the bird was the person's spirit making contact.
A Pattern of Bird Deaths
Smith's own association between birds and death is different. The day her mother-in-law died, a wren flew into the window of the classroom where she taught, and she found it dead on the ground outside. When they took the ashes to be scattered in the sea, a pheasant hit the car windscreen and died.
Some years later, at school, a blackbird flew into a glass door and died. "I hope this doesn't mean someone is about to die," she said to another teacher, explaining why she thought it might. That evening, she discovered that a good friend had died at about the same time.
No Explanation, but a Pattern
Smith offers no explanation for the pattern, but for her there does seem to be an association between birds and death. She adds that visiting robins are more uplifting than birds sacrificing their own lives.
