Birds and Their Figures of Speech

Last night there was a great blue heron on my boat dock. It walked from one end to the other on those implausible legs, and then bent to water, stretching its neck like a magic trick. For a minute, it looked as though it was thinking about walking up the ramp to my patio. It would have been tall enough to lift the latch on the gate with its beak.

I've seen pelicans swoop low over the marina, too--and egrets, cloud white above the blue water.

I have a pigeon nesting on my balcony--which, I suppose is not a good thing if you subscribe to the theory that pigeons are just rats with wings. While I don't especially like huge flocks of pigeons, I'm okay with one nest. The cooing is a sweet sound. No wonder we refer to love talk as cooing.

There are lots of figures of speech that relate to birds:
Fly the coop.
Birds of a feather flock together. --one of my Dad's favorite cautionary sayings.
What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Bird-brained.

Feel free to add to the list.