Marcus Winters

Folklore & Language Researcher

I've been fascinated by how animals show up in our language and stories for as long as I can remember. Growing up, my grandmother would tell me old sayings about birds—"an early bird gets the worm," "free as a bird"—and I'd wonder where these expressions actually came from. That curiosity stuck with me. Now I spend my time digging into idioms, cultural symbolism, and the surprising ways birds have woven themselves into how we talk and think. I'm the kind of person who gets genuinely excited about discovering a new bird saying or learning what a raven meant in medieval times. I keep a pair of binoculars by my desk and a well-worn notebook for jotting down observations.