The Birds

Stupidity: When the birds gather in the schoolyard, Melanie runs in to warn Annie. Rather than calling the police or fire department for help and then shelter in place until aid arrives (which would take about ten minutes), they instead decide to make a run for it with the children, out in the open, getting attacked by the birds. As it's the 1960s, the schoolhouse presumably has a working phone.

raywest

Continuity mistake: A blond boy in a light brown shirt is attacked by a crow and goes from having no blood on his neck to having a lot of blood smeared on his neck between shots. (01:14:10)

????

More mistakes in The Birds
More quotes from The Birds
More trivia for The Birds

Question: What's making the birds go insane and attack people?

Answer: It is never explained, probably because it would ruin the mystery of the film to spell it out.

If you are a Hitchcock fan, you pay attention to dialogue. They mention quite often that it started Melanie's arrival, of which she brought 2 caged birds. The rest is implied.

Answer: None of the characters knew why the birds attacked, or the reason it was confined to the one town of Bodega Bay. The incident was so isolated that the outside news media was barely aware it was occurring or knew its severity, so there was no investigation into it at the time. Alfred Hitchc0ck's explanation was that the birds were rising up against humans to punish them for taking nature for granted.

raywest

More questions & answers from The Birds

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.