Ornithophobia (fear of birds): meaning, causes, how common it is and how to overcome it

Ornithophobia is the fear of birds: an intense, lasting fear of birds, out of proportion to any real danger, that leads people to avoid them. It is a specific phobia of the animal type, like the fear of spiders or dogs. So if you are wondering what the fear of birds is called, the answer is ornithophobia; people also simply say bird phobia, phobia of birds, or being scared of birds.

This article is general information, not medical advice. If a fear of birds affects your daily life, talk to a doctor or a therapist trained in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).

What does ornithophobia mean?

Ornithophobia means “fear of birds”. The word joins two Greek roots: ornis (stem ornith-), “bird”, and phobos, “fear”, which originally meant “flight”, as in running away, before it became the common word for fear, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary and its entry for -phobia. The same ornitho- root gives ornithology, the study of birds.

How do you pronounce ornithophobia?

Say it or-nih-thuh-FOH-bee-uh, with the stress on “FOH”. Wiktionary gives the American pronunciation as /ˌɔɹnɪθəˈfoʊbiə/ and the British one as /ˌɔːnɪθəˈfəʊbɪə/.

Ornithophobia is a fear of which creatures?

Ornithophobia is a fear of birds. For some people that means every bird; for others it is mostly one kind, such as pigeons, gulls or large birds, or mostly one feature: flapping wings, sudden take-offs, beaks, claws or feathers. Many people say the movement frightens them more than a bird sitting still.

Fear of specific birds

The fears below are common descriptions, not separate diagnoses. Whatever the bird, it is still ornithophobia, and it responds to the same approach.

Fear of pigeons

Pigeons are the birds most people meet every day, on pavements, squares and café terraces. They often walk close, gather in flocks around food and can take off all at once, which is why the fear of pigeons is one of the most commonly described.

Fear of seagulls

Gulls are large, loud and bold around food. People often describe fearing their swoops, their calls and the way they circle overhead at the beach or by the harbour.

Fear of crows

Crows and ravens are big, dark and intelligent birds, sometimes seen as ominous in stories. People who fear them often mention their size, their calls and the feeling of being watched.

Fear of parrots

Parrots are close to people at home, in pet shops and aviaries. Their strong beaks, loud screeches and sudden flapping are what people with this fear usually mention.

Fear of chickens and hens

Hens are small but fast and unpredictable: they run, flap and peck at the ground around your feet, which is what tends to unsettle people on farms or in gardens.

Fear of eagles and birds of prey

Eagles, hawks and owls are large birds with talons and hooked beaks. Fear of them usually centres on their size and sharp features rather than everyday encounters, which are rare.

Fear of feathers (pteronophobia)

Pteronophobia is the fear of feathers, from the Greek pteron, “feather”, according to Wiktionary. It can exist on its own, for example a strong aversion to touching feathers or feather pillows, or as part of ornithophobia when feathers are one of the things a person fears about birds. Like other specific fears, it responds to gradual exposure.

What are the symptoms of ornithophobia?

Symptoms appear near birds, or just from thinking about them. The NHS lists the typical symptoms of a phobia:

• feeling dizzy or light-headed, a pounding or unusual heartbeat, tightness in the chest;
• feeling sick, trembling or shaking;
• severe anxiety, and an intense fear of fainting, losing control or dying.

Then comes avoidance: changing routes, refusing café terraces, staying away from parks, beaches or town squares. The fear can feel overwhelming even when you know the bird is harmless.

Why are birds scary to some people?

Birds move in ways that are hard to predict: they take off suddenly, fly close to your face, gather in flocks and flap loudly. For someone already anxious around them, that unpredictability is often the scariest part. What keeps the fear going over time is mostly avoidance, as the diagram below shows.

What causes ornithophobia?

There is no single known cause. The MSD Manual states that the causes of phobias are unknown. The NHS notes that many phobias can be linked to a frightening event or a stressful situation, such as a frightening childhood experience with an animal, and that a phobia can also be learned from family or friends who have one. Phobias usually develop in childhood, the teenage years or early adulthood.

Whatever started it, avoidance keeps it alive: each escape brings relief, and the relief teaches you that escaping was necessary. Exposure research by Craske et al. (Behaviour Research and Therapy, 2014) shows that new, safer learning happens when you stay and discover that what you expected does not happen.

How common is ornithophobia?

There is no reliable figure for ornithophobia alone. Large surveys measure specific phobias as a group, not the fear of birds on its own, so any precise percentage for bird phobia you may read online is not backed by data.

What we do know about specific phobias as a whole:

• across 25 surveys in 22 countries, about 7.4% of adults have had a specific phobia at some point in their life, and it usually starts in childhood, with a median onset at age 8 (Wardenaar et al., Psychological Medicine, 2017);
• in the United States, an estimated 12.5% of adults experience a specific phobia in their lifetime (NIMH);
• fears and phobias of heights and of animals are the most common kinds (Eaton et al., The Lancet Psychiatry, 2018).

How many people have ornithophobia?

Nobody knows precisely. Bird phobia belongs to the animal type of specific phobia, one of the most common types, but no large study has counted people with ornithophobia specifically.

Do I have ornithophobia? A quick self-check

This is not a test and it cannot diagnose anything. It follows the summary of the DSM-5-TR criteria for specific phobia in the MSD Manual, and only helps you decide whether to talk to a professional.

Tick what applies to you

I have felt a marked fear or anxiety about birds for six months or more. Seeing or approaching a bird almost always triggers that fear straight away. I avoid places with birds, or I get through them with intense fear. I feel the fear is out of proportion to the actual danger. The fear or the avoidance causes me real distress or gets in the way of my daily life, work or social life.

This is not a diagnosis. If you ticked most of these boxes, or if the fear bothers you, talk to your doctor or a therapist trained in CBT. Only a professional can assess a phobia.

How to overcome ornithophobia

The best-supported way to overcome a fear of birds is gradual exposure, the core of cognitive behavioural therapy: you approach birds in small steps, stay long enough to learn that the feared outcome doesn’t happen, and repeat in different places until real-life encounters feel manageable. According to the MSD Manual, exposure therapy helps around 85% of people with a specific phobia, and even a single session can make a real difference.

Our step-by-step guide explains how to build a fear ladder, how long to stay, how often to practise and when to get help: How to overcome ornithophobia.

Can virtual reality help with a fear of birds?

Virtual reality can make the first steps easier to reach and to repeat: the bird is there whenever you are ready, and you control its distance, number and movement. For specific phobias in general, a meta-analysis of 30 randomised trials found VR exposure as effective as real-life exposure (Carl et al., Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 2019). The honest caveat: these studies are mostly about heights, spiders and flying, not birds. More in Why virtual reality works for phobias.