Birds are an important motif in the novel. The title is named for a mysterious and hypothetical bird that controls the universe. Toru must metaphorically become this wind-up bird in order to seize control of his psyche. The wind-up bird is a symbol of free will and inherited traumas.

Birds are also re-symbolized through the allusion to The Thieving Magpie. The story of The Thieving Magpie only includes a bird at the very end, when a magpie flies into a rich man’s home and steals his cutlery, giving the man an opportunity to accuse his servant of stealing from him and sending her to prison. In a moment, and because of the random whims of a random bird, the woman’s entire life is changed. There are commonalities between this story and the novel.

A statue of a bird is the element of the abandoned Miyawaki house that first interests Toru. That the statue that draws him to the house and therefore the well is a bird is not a coincidence. The wind-up bird welcomes another version of the wind-up bird into the depths of the well.