Although birds appear frequently in The Mountains Sing, they are first mentioned as an absence. Just before Chapter 2’s airstrike begins, Hương “strain[s] [her] ears but hear[s] no bird” (3), immediately establishing birds as a symbol of peace and normalcy. In the idyllic episode that opens Diệu Lan’s own story, she notes, “Birds sang on tree branches” (23), and Hương makes similar observations when times are good for her. As such, characters strive to help birds when they find them in need: Diệu Lan’s children attempt to do this together on the day of the purge, and, when young Đạt is crying for his lost brother Minh, Diệu Lan reminds him of the time the two of them “found a bird nest in the eave” and “[t]ogether watched the eggs hatch” (174). After Đạt tells her, “We fed the baby birds with insects, until they were big enough to fly away,” she invokes the presence of birds to assure him: “One day we’ll be back to our home, Son. We’ll be back and birds from all over the world can come and nest with us” (174).

Beyond simply signaling harmony, birds sometimes appear as vessels for wisdom in the form of proverbs and songs.