wikipedia – şirin

Sirin is a mythological creature of Russian legends, with the head and chest of a beautiful woman and the body of a bird (usually owl).

Loosely based on the stories about sirens, these half-women half-birds allegedly lived “in Indian lands” near Eden or around the Euphrates River, and sang their beautiful songs to the saints foretelling them future joys. However, for mortals the birds were dangerous. Hearing their sweet voices, men would forget everything on earth, follow them blindly, and die. To save themselves from the Sirin, people would shoot the cannon, ring the bells and make loud noises to scare the bird off.

Sometimes Sirin is seen as a metaphor for a God’s word going into the soul of a man. Sometimes she is seen as a metaphor of heretics tempting the weak. Sometimes Sirin was considered equivalent to siren or Polish Wila.

In Russian folklore Sirin the bird was also mixed with revered religious writer saint Ephrem the Syrian. Thus, peasant lyrics like Nikolay Klyuev, often used Sirin as a synonym for poet.