Summary: | This paper deals with birds of ill omen and beliefs related to their cries
and calls. According to the presence of the ill omen attribute, these birds
are sorted into three groups. The paper describes various divination types
according to the calls of so-called unclean birds, as well as various
prophecies, i.e. their ominous „weight“, on the basis of numerous examples
from the Slavic cultural sphere, with additional, more recent examples from
the Serbian space. The final remarks are related to four segments: the type
of the listed birds’ bad omen (death, disease / year of famine, fire, bad
weather); prophecy of evil or merely information, i.e. warning about a
possible bad event; the manner of the bird’s prophecy or report of misfortune
(a call, a manner of flight etc.); existence of undesirable actions related
to certain birds (actions that could result in negative consequences for the
person who performs them). [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br.
47016: Interdisciplinarno istraživanje kulturnog i jezičkog nasleđa Srbije i
izrada multimedijalnog internet portala „Pojmovnik srpske kulture]
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