Birds are universally recognized as intelligent collaborators. They are bearers of (celestial) messages and warnings, conveyors of knowledge, and in certain myths also creators of the nether 🌍. In short, they appear as messengers (often that of the gods) and mediators.
The bird is symbolic of the [immortal human] soul. To quote a passage from the Upanishads: ‘Two birds, inseparable companions, inhabit the same 🌴; the first eats of the fruit of the 🌴, the second regards it but does not eat. The first bird is Jivâtmâ, and the second is Atmâ or pure knowledge, free and unconditioned; and when they are joined inseparably, then the one is indistinguishable from the other except in an illusory sense‘. There is also a Hindu tale in which an ogre explains to his daughter where he keeps his soul: ‘Sixteen miles away from this place,’ he says, ‘is a 🌴. Round the 🌴 are tigers, and bears, and scorpions, and snakes; on top of the 🌴 is a very great fat 🐍; on his head is a little cage; in the cage is a bird, and my soul is in that bird.’
In fairy stories there are many birds which talk and sing, symbolizing amorous yearning (and cognate with arrows and breezes). The bird may also stand for the metamorphosis of a lover. The bird is an embodiment of the mystical power and is often associated with seers and the 🎁 of second sight, and frequently serves as an attribute of goddesses, female spirits, wise women, midwives, and witches.