I was sitting on my deck watching the birds feed and snapped this photo.
Weather Proverbs About Birds
Did you know that bird behavior can help us predict the weather? Closely observe nature and your feathered friends—you might be surprised by what you learn!
One of these days, take a moment to look up. Watch birds in flight. Birds flying high in the sky usually indicate fair weather. As the adage goes …
- Hawks flying high means a clear sky. When they fly low, prepare for a blow.
- Geese fly higher in fair weather than in foul.
Air pressure does indeed affect birds. For example, swallows have sensitive ears; when the barometric pressure drops, they fly as close to the ground as possible, where air density is greatest. Low-flying birds are generally a sign of rain, while high-flyers indicate fair weather.
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Migrating birds can fly more easily in dense, high-pressure conditions. Therefore, geese may fly high when a high-pressure system moves to the area. High-pressure systems are associated with fair weather.
Birds tend to stop flying and take refuge at the coast if a storm is coming. They’ll also fly low to avoid the discomfort of the falling air pressure.
- When seagulls fly inland, expect a storm.
- When fowl roost in daytime, expect rain.
- Petrels gathering under the stern of a ship indicates bad weather.
Birds tend to get very quiet before a big storm. If you’ve ever been walking in the woods before a storm, the natural world is eerily silent! Birds also sing if the weather is improving.
- Birds singing in the rain indicates fair weather approaching.
Here are more bird proverbs and prognostics. Enjoy!
- If crows fly in pairs, expect fine weather; a crow flying alone is a sign of foul weather.
- The whiteness of a goose’s breastbone indicates the kind of winter: A red or dark-spotted bone means a cold and stormy winter; few or light-colored spots mean a mild winter.
- In the fall, drumming partridges mean a mild and open winter.
- When domestic geese walk east and fly west, expect cold weather.
- If birds in the autumn grow tame, the winter will be too cold for game.
- When the rooster goes crowing to bed, he will rise with a watery head.
- When the swallow’s nest is high, the summer is very dry. When the swallow buildeth low, you can safely reap and sow.
We humans can learn so much from birds! Enjoy more about animals and weather folklore!
Tom Warren
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I absolutely loved reading this and having it reassert my grandmother's "old wives' tales" in my mind. She always used to tell me that when the birds would get quiet, we were in for a storm or, at the very least, some heavy rain. She also used to tell me that birds would sing more so after a storm to reestablish their territory and because it hypnotized the worms to come to the surface. Lol, I thought that last one was kind of farfetched but, as I learned by reading this almanac, it wasn't so far out in right field as I once believed. Older folks knew so much more about reading nature's signs than we do today because they didn't have our technology, they lived by their wits and observed all those tiny details that we take for granted and overlook. Thank you for sharing this w us and helping me to understand more about our feathered friends..., and that my grandmother was right A LOT more than she was ever wrong lol.
I grew up in Chicago and witnessed a lot of dramatic weather there. During the summer of 2007, the day started out nice and sunny with puffy clouds, then suddenly all of the chimney swifts and swallows left the sky - dropping and blowing down almost like leaves in the Fall. A very strange sight. They took refuge in low lying bushes and shrubs. Less than half an hour later, the sky blackened, and a huge storm roared through that lasted well into the evening hours.
For the last few years I have had a Robin fly into my sliding glass door off my deck. I assume it is the same one every year. It does not let me get close to it but does not fly away at first sight of me. It does this every spring and as the summer progresses will eventually go away.
I have read about how low pressure that comes before s storm causes birds discomfort so the fly lower then they usually do I have also seen birds using tire tracks in the snow to scratch through to the ground and reach food
Birds and other living creatures are probably confused about the weather and don't know how to act. Because of end time weather.
I read that Black Billed and Yellow Billed Cuckoos were called rain Crows because their calling was suppost to mean it will Rain and LOONS WERE CALLED RAIN GOOSE BECUASE IT WAS THOUGHT THEIR CALLING MEANT RAIN and i once heard Western Meadowlark sing in the Rain(Holy Gene Kelly Batman)and i have seen Snowbirds(Oregon Juncos)appear when there is snow coming
My husband and I observed what appeared to be thousands of robins on our southern Maryland property and on our neighbors' properties as well. The robins were on nearby paved streets, on the ground and in the grass, on power lines, and in all of the trees -- everywhere we looked, literally everywhere -- like they were gathering. It was autumn and overcast, but it didn't rain. The silence was almost deafening. Reminded us of Alfreda Hitchcock's "The Birds." We got in our car, went to the store, and returned home. They didn't scatter from starting the engine and moving the car, and they were still there 20 to 30 minutes later when we returned. This happened a second time a few years later, only there were not nearly as many birds. We've lived here for more than 20 years, in this area for better than 65 years, and we've never seen anything like this. What could this have been, and just how unusual is this?
Robin Flocks: What I have read is Canadian Robins MIGRATE each year to the United States during the Autumn; to avoid the harsh Canadians Winters; the Robin flock will spend the winter in the USA; then return to Canada late winter early spring to build their nests and raise their young during the summer;
I've seen these same flocks of Robins; not as many as u did; many times in Connecticut; they like the shrub and tree berries; these are Canadian Robins~
I own a pest & bird control company in Phoenix - goldshotexterminating.net - and we do a ton of pigeon proofing. Pigeons are really tough and about the only time I've seen a change in their behavior as far as the weather does is when we have lightening. They'll do their normal thing during rain, wind and the 100+ degree heat but will be a bit harder to find when the monsoons hit.
