| CUCKOO | With zygodactyl feet, bird more often heard than spotted whose song, considered a herald of spring, is celebrated in the 800-year-old English rota Sumer is icumen in (6) |
| ROBIN | Territorial garden bird with a melancholic song, considered unlucky if it enters a person's home (5) |
| PARROT | Usually brightly coloured zygodactyl tropical bird (6) |
| MUSIC | It's better heard than faced (5) |
| WELCOMESWALLOW | Hirundo neoxena, a herald of spring in southern Australia (7, 7) |
| OWLS | Barn, little, snowy, tawny... birds of prey associated with wisdom, more often heard in the night than seen (4) |
| DANTE | Poet whom Pope Francis called "a prophet of hope, a herald of humanity's possible redemption and liberation" |
| MOA | 12-foot bird |
| EMU | Aussie 6-foot bird |
| SNOWDROP | As herald of spring, wintry weather event? (8) |
| SWALLOWS | Flying some 200 miles per day during their 6,000-mile migration, house martin-like birds considered heralds of spring and represented in heraldry as martlets (8) |
| TABARD | Medieval knight's surcoat; a herald's emblazoned tunic; or, a silk banner attached to a bugle (6) |
| BLAZON | Word for a shield first, later a herald's formal description of arms (6) |
| HARBINGER | Historically, a herald or forerunner sent to announce the approach of someone important (9) |
| FLOGADEADHORSE | A herald's goofed badly to promote a lost cause? (4,1,4,5) |
| HERMES | Herald of the Greek gods whose name, from "heap of rocks", refers to his representation in early times as a pillar marking a boundary (6) |
| DIVER | Bird; more than one would be several (5) |
| EAGLEOWL | Bird, more than one under par, flying low (5-3) |
| PHEASANT | Bird more exotic than apes? |
| NPR | Distributor of the podcast "All Songs Considered" |
