History Main / BluebirdOfHappiness

A common plot is to go on TheQuest for one only to return home empty-handed and find [[ItWasWithYouAllAlong it was already there]]. Outlining the {{Aesop}} that [[HomeSweetHome home is where you will find happiness]] is optional. While they have learned to recognize it from the quest, it's usually not ItsTheJourneyThatCounts, because it is usually treated as something they should have recognized even before.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' parodies this, having Fiona sing to one... causing it to ''explode''.

As true bluebirds (actually members of the thrush family) are only native to North America, any instance of them showing up in Europe is MisplacedWildlife. However, some mentions of "blue birds" in popular fiction and poetry, such as the French play ''L'Oiseau Bleu'', predate the discovery of the American bluebird; they are thought to be references to a different bird known as the [[http://www.empken.com/wiki/index.php5?title=Blue_Rock-Thrush blue rock-thrush.]]

* In ''Anime/PrettyRhythmRainbowLive'', Ann calls her Pair Friend, Poppun (a blue penguin), a "bluebird of happiness" when they first meet. At the time, she's forced to work in her family's senbei shop due to her OverprotectiveDad when she'd rather be at Prism Stone making sweets for customers.

* Film/SongOfTheSouth: "Mr. Bluebird is on my shoulder... It is the truth, it's actual, everything is satisfactual..."

* A scene in ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuers'' uses the bluebird as a symbol of "faith... you see from afar."

As true bluebirds (actually members of the thrush family) are only native to North America, any instance of them showing up in Europe is MisplacedWildlife. However, some mentions of "blue birds" in popular fiction and poetry, such as the French play ''L'Oiseau Bleu'', predate the discovery of American bluebird; they are thought to be references to a different bird known as the [[http://www.empken.com/wiki/index.php5?title=Blue_Rock-Thrush blue rock-thrush.]]

* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' had one strip where a man is abandoned by the Bluebird of Happiness, and is instead visited by the Chicken of Depression.

* The Music/{{Vocaloid}} song "Desert Bluebird" by Music/{{Mothy}} is about two siblings going to search for a bluebird that can grant any wish in a world AfterTheEnd, destroyed by (apparently) a nuclear war. [[spoiler:As it turns out, they DO find the bluebird but it was in an old nuclear base. The radiation makes the older sister die, and the younger brother wishes to the bird to revive her; it does, and then disappears.]] The song end with the sibling saying that they should rebuild the world with their own hands.

* The Music/{{Wings}} song "Bluebird" uses the bluebird to represent freedom. The singer refers to himself as a bluebird, and tells his love that if he kisses her, she'll turn into a bluebird, too, so that they can escape together across the sea.

* ''Theatre/TheBlueBird'' revolves about the search for one.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has the bluebird minion that can only be obtained from treasure coffers that are found from digging them up or within the Aquapolis treasure dungeon (though you can buy it from other players if you can afford it). The description states that the bluebird brings good fortune to anyone who already experienced it. Naturally, the minion is a very rare drop.
** The ''Endwalker'' expansion introduces the character Meteion, a girl with MercurysWings on her head, tail feathers down her back and talons for feet as well as [[ColorMotif blue clothes]], blue hair and [[InnocentBlueEyes blue eyes]] coupled with the ability to transform into an actual blue bird. She's also TheEmpath and was tasked by her creator with finding out what other people out there in the universe live for, what gives their lives meaning and what fills their lives with hope and happiness. [[spoiler:The realization that the premise of the question is flawed and the vast majority of the universe is in fact "inhabited" by the ruins and remains of civilizations that were unable or outright ''unwilling'' to keep living breaks her so badly that her color scheme is replaced with one of {{gloomy gray}} and [[DespairEventHorizon black despair]] and turns her into a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds.]]
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': In the Valley of the Four Winds in Pandaria you can find blue feathers and turn them to some of the inhabitants to highten your friendship with them. This comes into full effect when you give them to [[GrumpyOldMan Old Hillpaw]]

** On a meta level, the [[http://www.facebook.com/operationbluebirdze3 campaign]] to get ''VLR'' a sequel was called Operation Bluebird.

* Bruno tries ordering one in ''Webcomic/BrunoTheBandit'' to improve his lot in life shortly after disposed from his reign as king. The bird turns out to secretly be a servant of a demon lord trying to manipulate Bruno for his own means.