Why are people afraid of birds?
Of Many animal phobias, the most common cause of Ornithophobia is a negative encounter with the feared animal. This could include certain traumatic events, such as being surprised or attacked by a bird. It is also possible to be triggered by a bird flying into a home, or building.
A bird phobia is unpleasant and can prevent one from going outside.
Therefore, if birds startle you, follow these tips.
A phobia of birds is called Ornithophobia, which is a bit of a mouthful.
Despite the lack of statistics regarding individuals with a phobia of birds in the UK, the good news is that no one is born with the condition. It affects 12 percent of people in the United States, but no statistics exist for the UK.
Yes, because you don't get a phobia from birth, either you've had a bad experience or your behavior has been influenced by someone else, like a parent, sibling, or a friend at school. Additionally, keep in mind that a negative experience does not have to involve a bird in person; You might have also seen something similar on television. I do recall the film "The Birds," which caused many people, including Alfred Hitchcock—it was a masterpiece!—to develop a fear of birds.
So the best way to, question, to overcome your fear is to start with a timeline. Knowing that you weren't born with this phobia if this is you, then how did it start? What happened? How did you perceive it? Yeah, and the thing is that a phobia of birds,
it's not just necessarily about the bird itself, it can be about flapping, your fear can be about feathers, and it can even go as far as things like cushions and pillows, even feather dusters, so it is about finding that origin, because then once you've got the origin, the next step is to address that and to change your perception so as we were just saying there with a movie, for example, if the scary bird's in the movie, then the question is, what scared you? Because it wasn't the birds, it was the director of the film that directed-
That's right! It was a film you know was meant to be a frightening film, and most probably if your phobia comes from that film, you watched it at an age younger than you should have been watching that so, as an adult you can accept it's a film, it's a great horror film, and it was fabulous. However, as a child it's frightening and, you might think that
Birds from that moment are just going to swoop down and attack you. So you've got to put it into perspective by changing your perception. So some of the more common things that we've come across, or reasons or causes, of bird phobias, are things such as when you've gone maybe as Nike said as a little one, and bearing in mind most phobias are created between the ages of 5 and 13 so if you're only little. And you're going somewhere where birds are abundant. And you're feeding an abundance of birds, than comparably size wise you know you're quite little and that bird might seem quite big mightn't it?
You are aware that feeding birds, particularly seagulls, will result in them pursuing your food. A few people have claimed that they were holding food when a seagull swooped down, but it wasn't to attack them, as we've heard; Take, for instance, a stroll along a seafront. It only cared about the food. As a result, essentially consider those circumstances objectively rather than assuming that birds are pursuing me because birds do not attack. So, you have to do exactly that, and you need to know that changing that perception means seeing it for what it is, not how it felt. If the birds were coming down, for instance, were they truly interested in you or merely seeking food? A woman I recently dealt with had a terrible fear of birds to the point where even going outside to hang her laundry was now a real challenge. She gave the reason for her trepidation as the fact that when she was a young woman, her father brought her home from school and found a dead, headless pigeon on the carport. This was the reason why she was afraid. They don't care about you. You won't ever be attacked by a bird. Now, if you look at the situation from a different angle, what did the bird do? Who did a worse job? Consequently, you will change how you feel about birds if you can change your positive emotion from fear to compassion and pity.
She clearly blamed the bird, but the bird did nothing, so I can completely understand why a young girl would be terrified to see a headless pigeon. The thing is, when you feel scared, you will. It's a matter of putting it into perspective, but also looking at the positive aspects of birds because you know we wouldn't be around if it weren't for birds at all because birds do so many things, they control pests, they help pollinate plants and trees by dispersing seeds, and actually, they've been known to bring back ecosystems that were struggling before birds being there. One thing that is completely amazing about birds is that they are considered an early warning system for things like climate change. In the
So you must look at the origin, you change your perspective, so we've talked about films, we've talked about the little girl coming home and seeing the dead pigeon. And you've got to ask yourself the question, who was the victim in that situation, so who should we pity? We've also had situations where a brother, an older brother, or an older sister has chased a
Little sibling with a feather duster, err. So you know. Who should you blame? Who created the fear? Not the feathers The brother, not the feathers, not the
Bird. In another situation, we spoke to a lady who as a little girl remembers a pigeon getting trapped in the house. And it was, it was throwing itself at the window because it was desperately
Trying to get out so, we understand again- But that situation was frightening but actually whilst she was frightened, the bird was frightened a lot more because it was the bird that was trapped Yeah, and we asked that question you know, to be fair in this situation, who had the biggest fear and was it trying to come towards you or get away from you? And she was like oh goodness yeah it was trying to get away from me, and then you know, and it was banging and hurting itself in the process it was desperate to get away, and the
other one that's just sprung to mind is EAM, where somebody has EAM seen a bird that's, that's been sort of attacked or mutilated, I think we've mentioned that, and there was just another one that came to my mind that I can't think... That was what I wanted to talk about-
Flapping! That was it, so, because I know that
A lot of people say "well alright. I can kind of-" "I'm alright with the bird. But it's the flapping!"
"I can kind of cope with the bird. But it's the flapping that EAM, that's a real problem", so I'm
Glad I remembered that because I do know that that troubles a lot of people. Again, what I'd like you to consider and how you can change perspective positively on that, is to understand that when that, when they're flapping that's a good sign! That means that they're trying to get away from you and not come toward you. Their flapping is the equivalent of us trying to run away, so, and that's just them desperately trying to get away. They're not trying to flap at you, it's their only means of escape so actually-do you remember that time we had a lady who was feeding pigeons, and then it got its claw stuck in her woolly jumper? And it was flapping to try and get away but because it was flapping near her head, that-And all it was doing was trying-Just trying to get away, it was desperate! It was. So I guess what we're saying is you know, look at the origin, change your perspective of that origin, and we've given you some examples there, and then like Niki mentioned the positives about birds, how they help us,
you know the fact that pest control helps plant seeds, they help to pollinate-
They don't plant seeds do they Eva - No, not physically-
I mean that like they were physically gardening with the seeds, no, actually
because of what the berries that they eat, when they poo it's the poo then goes on the soil and the seeds might have, Too much-
It's too much information, but it's not, you made it sound like the birds are out there they like, you know with a gardening hat on. And they've got their little tools planting seeds. I suppose what we're asking is for you to be fair and to be compassionate. Birds, other than perhaps if you've got a little bit of food, are not interested in you-Not at all, they're frightened of us They are petrified of us, particularly because they can't run away you know they, all they've got is this flap to try and get away and it, it's not instant, it takes a little bit of effort to do that,
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