Birds Of A Feather

Yesterday, I was talking to a student who said, "the same feather flock together." It was a silly mistake but I had to give her credit for trying to integrate an idiom into what she was saying.

The correct idiom is "birds of a feather flock together." No, we're not talking about birds here; however, the meaning of this idiom is taken from the way birds behave. Think about a flock of birds flying overhead: a flock (a group of birds) will only have one kind of bird. If we're lucky, we can catch a flock of sparrows, a flock of swallows, a flock of seagulls. We don't see a flock composed of all three kinds of birds. The expression "birds of a feather" means a group of the same birds (they have the same feathers!).

The idiom "birds of a feather flock together" talks about a group of people who are similar in whatever respect. So a football-obsessed teenager will hang-out with other football obsessed
teen-aged friends. Their age and love for football make them like "birds of a feather." In human terms, people who like the same things and act the same way stick together.

Toodles!