Ornithomancy
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Ornithomancy is the practice of reading omens from the actions of birds followed in many ancient cultures including the Greeks, and is equivalent to the augury employed by the ancient Romans.
Etruscan wall painting from Tomba degli Auguri (c. 530 BC) showing two augurs
One of the black bird sculptures of Taivoan people in the Public Hall Kong-kài in Rauron.
"One for Sorrow" is a traditional children's nursery rhyme about magpies. According to an old superstition, the number of magpies seen tells if one will have bad or good luck.
Ornithomancy
…crook-taloned birds, marking which were of the right by nature, and which were of the left, and what were their ways of living, each after his kind”. The magpie counting song is a folklore remnant of ornithomancy. The Taivoan people refer to the 'oh-ah, oh-ah' call of crows as pháinn-kiat-tiāu, signifying an omen of bad luck…
Three magpies in a tree
One magpie at the birth of Jesus, perhaps presaging sorrow for Mary: Piero della Francesca's The Nativity
Children's game hopscotch played in Lancashire, England with lyric close to the 1846 version of the rhyme