Last updated on October 15th, 2022 at 03:00 pm
The Birds follows the story of a bird invasion, during which flocks of dark birds take over a city and torment the people inside it. What you might be left wondering, however, is why did the birds attack in the first place?
The birds attacked in The Birds because they resented the humans for exploiting and mistreating them, according to one interview with the film’s famed director, Sir Alfred Hitchcock. However, their motives are intentionally left vague.
This Is Why the Birds Attacked in The Birds
Part of the eeriness of The Birds comes from the unpredictability of the birds.
It’s unclear where they’re coming from or where they’re going, and no one is sure what they want or why they’re suddenly attacking.
Alfred Hitchcock described what he thought about the birds’ motives after the fact in an interview, but he still left many puzzled and postulating.
According to Alfred Hitchcock
According to Alfred Hitchcock, the birds attack in The Birds because they resent humans for mistreating them and want to stand up for themselves.
Tired of being hunted and used for hats, they take to murdering humans to overturn the status quo.
By working together, they can take on the humans.
This theory makes sense considering that The Birds was released in 1963 when there were fewer environmental protections for birds.
And also when humans more commonly exploited them for things like fashion and hunting.
Perhaps Hitchcock felt the tension between species and decided to bring that to life in his film.
Toxins and the Monterey Bay Incident
There are some similarities between what happens in The Birds and what happened in a 1961 incident at Monterey Bay, California.
Likely due to a toxin emitted by algae, seabirds were driven insane, stricken with memory loss, seizures, and disorientation.
Many of them flew into the sides of peoples’ homes.
Although these birds did not attack humans, many saw their crashing into houses as threatening, and their abnormal behavior certainly caught many people off guard.
Of course, a key difference between this event and the movie is that in Monterey Bay, the birds were the ones at risk of dying, not the humans.
Could What Happened in The Birds Really Happen?
What happened in The Birds couldn’t really happen.
Corvids and seabirds form powerful flocks and can be aggressive when provoked.
However, there is no reason to believe they would coordinate with each other in an attack on mankind.
There are no true precedents for this kind of situation.
Corvid Flock Behavior
Corvids are social birds by nature, and they form large flocks of up to thousands of birds.
They usually have smaller flocks during the summer, with something like two to eight birds in the flock, but they’ll join larger together to make larger flocks during the winter.
Together, the flocks can stay warm and safe from predators. They are also avid communicators, so you’ll often see flocks of corvids chattering with one another.
Crows can be aggressive when their territory is threatened, especially by other crows.
These fights break out most commonly around mating and breeding seasons.
Still, there is little reason to believe that corvids could or would attack humans as a flock as they do in The Birds.
The closest incident to this would have been the Monterey Bay poisoning incident when disoriented birds started crashing into houses in California.
However, the birds were not directly aggressive towards humans, especially not as a group.
How The Birds Was Filmed
Hundreds of birds were trained for their roles in The Birds, including ravens, crows, and gulls.
The scenes that could not be shot with real birds were shot with mechanical birds or filled in later with animations.
By using recordings of real bird cries and wing flapping sounds, they could bring the birds to life, whether real or mechanical.
Would a Crow Attack a Human?
A crow would attack a human if it felt threatened or if its nest was threatened. Also, sometimes an umbrella or hat can spook a crow and cause it to attack.
By avoiding nesting areas and throwing away all garbage properly, you can decrease the likelihood of crow attacks.
Why Alfred Hitchcock Made a Film about Birds
Though there are many theories as to why Hitchcock chose to create The Birds, there is a clear association between his work and a short story that inspired him, by Daphne du Maurier.
Daphne du Maurier
The Birds was partly inspired by a short story by the writer Daphne du Maurier.
The story takes place on the farmland of a family who has become victims of flocks of birds.
In the story, the birds band together to take on the humans not only across the immediate area but also across the whole country.
The Symbolism Of the Birds
There are many possible explanations as to what Hitchcock meant in creating The Birds, which could be an allegory for many different things.
Three possibilities carry the most significance in modern interpretations of The Birds.
Oppressed Uprising
In one light, the birds could represent an oppressed class rising up against its oppressors.
Under this view, the human characters that the movie follows actually embody the oppressor class perspective, one that fears this uprising as it will ultimately lead to their downfall.
This story is one of the masses winning due to sheer numbers.
Environmental Interpretation
One of the most popular interpretations of the symbolism of the birds in The Birds is the environmentalist take.
In this view, the birds are simply fighting back against a species that hunts and exploits them en masse.
Hitchcock himself ironically referred to the “services” we as humans provide to birds in a trailer for the film, including caging, hunting, and stuffing.
Other Social Commentary
Other experts have noted social commentary in the birds related to the female characters.
The birds tend to present themselves when the female characters are present and especially when they are upset or having conflict.
This could mean that the birds represent female anger and the force of female territorialism.