Birds

See Also: ANIMALS, INSECTS, SINGING

1. Bird, its little black feet tucked under its belly like miniature bombs —Peter Meinke
2. Birds afloat, like a scarf —Babette Deutsch
3. Birds … bobbed like clothespins on the telephone line —Elizabeth Savage
4. Birds … circling like black leaves —Hugh Walpole
5. Birds flew up like black gloves jerked from a line —Paul Theroux
6. Birds … gliding like pieces of dark paper abandoned suddenly by an erratic wind —John Rechy
7. Bird, shaped like the insides of a yawning mouth —Charles Simic
8. Birds in flight, fluid as music on a page —Anne Morrow Lindbergh
9. Birds … like planes stacked up over the airport, circling until they get a permission-to-land signal —Italo Calvino
10. Bird songs rang in the air like dropped coins —George Garrett
11. Birds rose into the air like blown leaves (at his approach) —Margaret Millar
12. The birds sang as if every sparkling drop were a fountain of inspiration to them —Charles Dickens
13. Birds … they roll like a drunken fingerprint across the sky —Richard Wilbur
14. (Birds) twitter louder than a flute —Phyllis McGinley
15. Birds … white as scraps of paper —Willa Cather

    See Also: WHITE

16. Crows whirled lazily in the sky like flakes of black ash rising from a fire —Guy Vanderhaeghe
17. A dove … glistening like a pearl —Hans Christian Andersen
18. The eagles were reveling in the air like bank robbers who had broken into the vault —Edward Hoagland
19. A flight of egrets … flying low, and scattered … like a ripple of white notes, sweet and pure and springlike, which an unseen hand drew forth, like a divine arpeggio, from an unseen harp —W. Somerset Maugham

    See Also: MUSIC

20. A flock of white swans flew like a long white veil over the water —Hans Christian Andersen
21. The fluttering, honking formation of birds was like a ship borne by the wind into the high invisible distance —Bernard Malamud
22. Geese … blackening the sky like a shake of pepper —Diane Ackerman
23. Gulls cry like hurt children —George Garrett
24. Gulls … settling and stirring like blown paper —Sylvia Plath
25. A handful of thrushes set down in an oak tree, like a flurry of leaves —Linda Bierds

    This simile marks the closing of Bierds’ poem, Mid-Plains Tornado.

26. (That great) hawk circling like a black planet —Ellen Gilchrist
27. Hens … like dowager women, plump and impeccably arrayed in brown and grey —Rolf Yngve
28. His wings [Jonathan Livingston Seagull’s] were smooth and perfect as sheets of polished silver —Richard Bach
29. Hummingbird … with a beak that looked as long as a darning needle and about as sharp —A. E. Maxwell
30. A jaybird … flying in a feathered flash of blue and white like a swift piece of the sky —George Garrett
31. The parrots shriek as if they were on fire —Ted Hughes

    In a poem entitled The Jaguar, the parrots not only shriek but “Strut like cheap tarts to attract the stroller with the nut.”

    See Also: SCREAMS

32. The pigeons lolloped from illusory pediment to window-ledge like volatile, feathered madmen, chattering vile rhymes and laughing in hoarse, throaty voices —Angela Carter
33. Pigeons … settled into trees that shone with them like soft blue and gray fruit —Marge Piercy
34. Pigeons … with spreading wings like falling snow —Émile Zola
35. Soared high above the other birds, climbing like a dart —R. Wright Campbell
36. A solid line of pelicans flew … in graceful unison like a crew of oarsman in a racing shell —George Garrett
37. Sparrows scatter like handfuls of gravel —William H. Gass
38. Storks and pelicans flew in a line like waving ribbons —Hans Christian Andersen
39. Swans floated about like white lanterns —Lawrence Durrell
40. Swans go by like a snowy procession of Popes —George Garrett
41. Terns rise like seafoam from the breaking surf —Robert Hass
42. White gulls … in such close formation they were like a cloud —Phyllis Roberts