Birds in stories and symbols

In art, we learned to draw a Thunderbird. We learned that it is make-believe bird created by Native Americans to explain thunder storms. The thunder was from the flapping of the bird's wings and the lightning were bolts coming from the bird's eyes. The symbol of the thunderbird can be seen in many Native American artworks. It often closely resembles an eagle.

The firebird, also known as a phoenix" is also a make-believe bird celebrated in many folk tales and myths. We looks at illustrations of a phoenix and talking about which different types of birds it looks like. You can see it's tail is similar to a peacock's tail. It's big wings or similar to an eagle's. It's head is very swan-like.
Birds are often mascots for sports times, such as the Blackhawks.

Birds are also mascots for cereal brands. Do you recognize Toucan Sam from the box of Fruit Loops? There is also the cuckoo bird for Cocoa Puffs.