This cute little Dark-eyed Junco and many of the small birds are not listed as unclean in Leviticus 11.
“‘These are the birds you are to regard as unclean and not eat because they are unclean: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, 14 the red kite, any kind of black kite, 15 any kind of raven, 16 the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, 17 the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl, 18 the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey, 19 the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.”
Leviticus 11:13-19 NIV
Most birds on the list tend to be carnivorous and prey on smaller birds, rodents and reptiles. Some even feed on carrion which is disgusting.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV
While I may never fully know why God considers the listed birds as unclean, the only thing I do know is that I would not find it appetizing to eat a roasted turkey vulture which just feasted on stinky rotten flesh.
Would you look forward to eating a bird which you know feasted on rotting flesh?
These little ones prefer seeds. I call them Dark-eyed junkies as a joke since they seem to be the only ones as of late that keep coming for the seeds in the backyard.
“Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this.15 Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.”[16] [f]
17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable.18 “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? 19 For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.”(In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)
20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them.21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder,22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
Mark 7:14-23 NIV
According to the passage, nothing a person eats can defile them morally and spiritually (verse 19). Though some people may argue that it was Mark’s commentary that Jesus declared all foods clean, Jesus makes the point that eating with unwashed hands does not equate to a defiled heart.
Related read: Thoughts Of Shrimp & Pork