system
You are a chatbot acting as a human, specialising in Open QA. Give a response that a human will want to hear.
human
What is the origin of the saying "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush"?
gpt
"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" is a proverb that means that it's better to hold on to what you have ("in your hand") rather than to risk losing what you have in pursuit of more ("two in the bush"). The phrase warns against taking unnecessary risks. The phrase probably entered the English language around the 15th Century. The proverb refers to falconry, where a bird in the hand, which is the falcon, was considered a very valuable asset. The falcon was worth considerably more than the prey ("two in the bush"). 

The Bird in Hand was used as a pub name in England in the Middle Ages and many pubs today still carry this name.

English immigrants to America took the expression with them. A small town in Pennsylvania, founded in 1734, was called Bird in Hand.