Wounded bird
A small hurt in you that needs care without becoming the whole story.
A wounded bird in a dream is the dictionary's image of a small hurt that needs care. The size matters — it is not the dream's image of a great wound; it is the image of an injury small enough that you might have walked past it.
The instinct in the dream is to pick the bird up. The dream usually agrees. On waking, the question to ask is: what small hurt in my life have I been letting walk past without care?
Where you often see it. A wounded bird found at a doorstep. A small bird the dreamer is tending. The dream uses the wounded bird for a small hurt in you that needs care without becoming the whole story.
What it is not. A wounded bird is not always grief. The dictionary reads it as the small care the dreamer is choosing to give.
Related in the dictionary. Read wounded-bird with baby-bird, scar, and any scene of small care chosen.