We are coming to the end of the Autumn bird migration season, when visitors from Northern Europe like blackbirds, thrushes and finches arrive on our shores, having travelled up to 850 miles. Concurrently, our summer visitors including swallows, swifts, cuckoos and martins, begin their journey south to warmer climes.

Every year, I find myself feeling in awe of this spectacular natural phenomenon, as I watch the swans and geese flying in V-formation, heading to the south of England from Iceland and Greenland. Using a combination of celestial navigation, landmarks, olfactory sense, sensing the earth’s magnetic field and following each other, the birds work out which way to go.  

Bird imagery is prevalent in the bible, from the Psalms, which reassure us that “he will cover you with his pinions,  and under his wings you will find refuge” (91:4), ravens bringing food to Elijah in 1 Kings 17:6 and Noah’s consignment of a raven and a dove in Genesis 8, to Jesus teaching us to “look at the birds of the air” (Matthew 6:26) as an antidote to worrying and declaring “How often I have wanted to gather your people together as a mother hen gathers her little ones under her wings” in Luke 13:34.

The wealth of varied bird imagery throughout the bible is hardly surprising, given the rich avifauna of ancient Near Eastern region, both native and migratory. Birds were hunted and eaten, reared in captivity for both food and sacrificial systems, studied for oracular divination and depicted in a variety of household objects. They are referred to both literally and metaphorically in a wealth of literary genres, from Egyptian love songs, to Neo-Assyrian descriptions of military victory, Sumerian proverbs and Ugaritic rites.

In biblical times, birds were both a common feature of quotidian life and a gravity-defying marvel. Even today, with so much relative scientific advancement, they continue to be a source of wonder. When we need reminding of God’s glorious provision, care and nurture, as well as the spectacular and precarious nature of creation, a good place to start is to consider the birds.