Clean and Unclean Birds

Concise Bible Dictionary:

A list of the unclean birds is given (Lev. 11:13-20¹³And these are they which ye shall have in abomination among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray, ¹⁴And the vulture, and the kite after his kind; ¹⁵Every raven after his kind; ¹⁶And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind, ¹⁷And the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl, ¹⁸And the swan, and the pelican, and the gier eagle, ¹⁹And the stork, the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat. ²⁰All fowls that creep, going upon all four, shall be an abomination unto you. (Leviticus 11:13‑20); Deut. 14:12-18¹²But these are they of which ye shall not eat: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray, ¹³And the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after his kind, ¹⁴And every raven after his kind, ¹⁵And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind, ¹⁶The little owl, and the great owl, and the swan, ¹⁷And the pelican, and the gier eagle, and the cormorant, ¹⁸And the stork, and the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat. (Deuteronomy 14:12‑18)). In the A. V. the unclean are called the Bat, Cormorant, Cuckoo, Eagle, Gier Eagle, Glede, Hawk, Heron, Kite, Lapwing, Night Hawk, Ospray, Ossifrage, Owl great and little, Pelican, Raven, Stork, Swan, Vulture, and “fowls that creep, going upon all four.” This leaves for the clean birds the Bittern, Crane, Dove, Ostrich, Partridge, Peacock, Pigeon, Quail, Sparrow, and Swallow. Of these the Ostrich is supposed to be among the unclean under the name of Owl; the Peacock was not a native bird of Palestine; and the Bittern and Crane were inhabitants of the marshy ground among the reeds, and were probably classed with the unclean under some of the above names. We do not read of the ordinary domestic fowl in the Old Testament. See under each of the above names.