In the Brothers Grimm tale “The Juniper Tree,” the murdered boy returns as a bird.
The boy is killed by his stepmother, who tricks him into leaning over a chest and then causes the lid to fall. His sister buries his remains beneath the juniper tree. The tale then shifts into a supernatural revenge story as the boy’s spirit appears in avian form.
The bird sings a song that reveals the crime and visits several people to obtain gifts. It receives a golden chain, red shoes, and a millstone. These objects become part of the punishment of the stepmother and the restoration of the boy’s family.
The tale is much darker than many stories marketed as children’s fairy tales. It combines murder, cannibalism, magical transformation, and justice. The bird’s identity is not simply an ordinary animal character: it is the boy’s returning spirit, eventually restored to human form.