The Real Story Behind "The Birds"

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Alfred Hitchcock, known as The Master of Suspense and director of the famous thriller "The Birds" was living in California's Monterey Bay in August 1961. That was when thousands of seabirds called sooty shearwaters were seen regurgitating anchovies and running into objects then dying on the streets. The event remained shrouded in mystery even two years later when the movie came out. Questions like were these birds really this malicious, and what could possibly have led them to act in this bizarre way plagued the scientific community for years. Now the scientific consensus is that a toxic alga called Pseudo-nitzschia had poisoned the birds. The birds weren't attacking people as was later depicted in the movie, but they were barely in control of their actions and were disoriented. Hitchcock had also gotten inspiration for the film from Daphne du Maurier's short story also entitled "The Birds". His movie "Rebecca" was also a du Maurier adaption. "The Birds" is considered one of Hitchcock's greatest works along with Vertigo, Psycho, Rear Window and North by Northwest. Rear Window is one of my favorite movies. The picture is from theaceblackblog.com