Where does the expression "A little birdie told me" come from?

Solution 1:

According to 'Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable', from Ecclesiastes x. 20:

Curse not the King, no not in thy thought; . . . for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.

Solution 2:

From The Phrase Finder

Various authors over the centuries, including Shakespeare, have made reference to birds, feathered or otherwise, giving messages. The first that comes close to our current version of this phrase is Frederick Marryat, in Peter Simple, 1833:

"A little bird has whispered a secret to me."

Wikipedia

Peter Simple is an 1834 novel written by Frederick Marryat about a young British midshipman during the Napoleonic wars. It was originally published in serialized form in 1833

Phrase Finder says that the root source of this expression probably is biblical, from Ecclesiastes; see Barrie England's answer, above.

(The phrase "feathered or otherwise" seems odd. I thought all birds, by definition, had feathers.)

Solution 3:

The first thing that came to my mind were Odin's ravens, Thought and Memory who "brought information to Odin".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huginn_and_Muninn

On Wiktionary, they make reference to the same Bible phrase AND a connection to Norse mythology.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/a_little_bird_told_me