Ornithophobia is a type of specific phobia, an abnormal, irrational fear of birds.
Symptoms
Ornithophobia can cause the following symptoms: breathlessness, dizziness, excessive sweating, nausea, dry mouth, feeling sick, shaking, heart palpitations, inability to speak or think clearly, a fear of dying, becoming mad or losing control or a full blown anxiety attack.
In popular culture
Alfred Hitchcock's horror filmThe Birds is an epitome of this kind of fear, but the fear is rational because the birds involved are attacking humans in the film.
References
London L.S., Ailurophobia and ornithophobia, Psychiatr Q. 1952;26(3):364-71.
Calef V., Alcoholism and ornithophobia in women, Psychoanal Q. 1967;36(4):584-7.
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