A childhood belief about family

My nanna always seemed to know what was going on, specifically if I had been naughty. I once asked her, very wide eyed, how she knew all these things. Her response was that 'a little bird told her'. I was pretty litteral as a child and promptly asked her which one, she pointed to a black bird that just happened to be in her yard at the time and told me that it was him. That he was always watching me and would tell her what I had been doing.

For years my mum pointing out "nanna's blackbird is watching you." was a sure fire way of making me behave. I seem to recall that when she died (I was 7 at the time) my mum told me that the blackbird would keep carrying messages about me to her in heaven. Oddly it was really comforting and the concept of a litteral 'little bird' is still something my mum and I share a smile over to this day (23 years on).