The Bird Invasion Of A California Town That May Have Inspired An Alfred Hitchcock Film
A night of bizarre terror from the skies in a sleepy coastal community is believed to have inspired a classic Hollywood movie
The Birds is a quintessential film in the portfolio of legendary director Alfred Hitchock. A horror-thriller about California Bay area town terrorized by swarms of deadly attaching birds, it seems too sensational to have any basis in reality. However, a bizarre incident in Capitola, California with flocks of aggressive birds may have actually played a role in the creation of this iconic movie.
Most directly, The Birds was an offshoot of a 1952 short story by the same name from author Daphne du Maurier. It was developed by filmmaker Alfred Hitchock into a movie that went on to great acclaim; later being designated as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the United States Library of Congress.
Hitchcock didn’t just simply adapt du Maurier’s story. He also created additional characters and plot points to enhance the horror. Part of his inspiration may well have come from a couple of years earlier when swarms of aggressive Sooty Shearwater sea birds descended on the sleepy town of Capitola, California and inexplicably began…
