Birds are a recurring motif throughout the novel, appearing in the title and throughout the rest of the text in many ways. The small turquoise dellawisps, whose name inspired the apartment building in which the novel is set, are fictional birds that become a symbol for Mallow Island. Frasier knows the dellawisps intimately, forging a connection with them as strong as his bond with the ghosts that haunt him. The novel suggests that the dellawisps have an intelligence and awareness that transcends their species. Additionally, their colors are very distinctive: bright turquoise and orange, symbolizing energy and life.

Birds also appear as symbols of artistic expression. Charlotte’s date, Benny, is a woodcarver whose signature is bird carvings. Similarly, although Roscoe Avanger is in a creative drought, his alter-ego Frasier remains a prolific and skillful artist whose drawings of the dellawisps become evocative illustrations for Avanger’s book. While Frasier distances himself from his literary work, he’s proud of his art.

Birds also play a pivotal role in the story of Paloma, who becomes an invisible pigeon after death. This mirrors a story she told Zoey in childhood: “a woman who died giving birth to a son. She loved her child so much her soul went to live in the body of a bird to watch over him while he grew” (282).