Bird Dream

This may be a mental process that is unique to me, but I feel like I need to come to a crisis. I am still up and at the computer at 12:58 a.m. That may not sound so late, but I know I will have trouble forcing myself to get up in the morning. I am pretty wired and it will be an hour or more before I can settle into sleep. This morning I let the alarm--tuned to talk radio--run out its hour and I remained in bed. Then I had a dream that woke me to tears. It included the demise of a pet bird--death by reckless treatment at the hands of a member of my family. My thought process did not improve upon waking. I ruminated over resentments, a total waste of time and effort. Something is going on and I cannot recognize what I need to do to get through the current mood. I am staying busy. I plan at least a couple tasks/errands each day and I am reading two books, a mystery and a drawing instruction book. That last involves exercises with pencil and paper that I am enjoying. I fear my current state is one of those situations I will not understand until I have weathered the storm. Why can I not step outside of myself and observe? If a friend were having these difficulties, I would probably be able to offer advice. Now that I write this, I realize that my reaction to the dream was not so much sadness over the bird's death but it was rather my frustration that someone in the dream did not understand my being upset.
So, are birds symbolic? Should I be perusing Jung?