This one is for the Birds!
It’s a plane, it’s a Superman, no wait ... Run, It’s The Birds!
So How Did I Start Down The Birds Rabbit Hole of Research?
I hope y’all all had a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving holiday. It was a bit different this year, but I still enjoyed cooking all my favorite dishes. While feasting on dinner I thought about a recent viewing of The Birds, and the rest was a series of internet searches.
If you don’t know, The Birds movie was released in 1963 by Alfred Hitchcock. If you haven’t seen it, put it on your To Be Watched list.
This classic Hitchcock horror film was based on a story originally published by Daphne du Maurier in her 1952 collection The Apple Tree (later reprinted in The Birds and Other Stories). Her original story is about how a farmer, his family, and community are attacked by flocks of birds.
In Hitchcock’s classic film, the story is set in an isolated coastal town, Bodega Bay, and centers around a charming man named Mitch, his love interests (Melanie and Annie), his overbearing mother, and of course birds. Angry Birds!
One could stretch the original allegory (Nazi invasion or the threat of Cold War mania) of Daphne du Maurier story to fit Hitchcock’s version, but the movie probably lines up with one of Hitchcock’s favorite reoccurring themes of neurotic and controlling matriarchs. The birds can be seen as a manifestation of Mitch’s mom defending the family unit, the birds never attack Mitch and don’t stop attacking until Melanie is defeated and being nurtured by Mitch’s mom as they drive away through a murder of crows.
Even though we could spend a lot of time analyzing the allegory and themes of The Birds, I would like to focus on the birds themselves. Could/Would birds decide one day to amass in great numbers and attack from the sky? Let’s go down the Rabbit Hole of Research because this one is going to the birds.
Fear Of Our Feather Friends
So some people (my hand raises) don’t enjoy being around birds. Some people have an extreme fear of birds termed ornithophobia. If you have ornithophobia, you may experience intense anxiety when thinking about or being around birds. I can see why the idea of a flock of birds sitting around the playground may be enough to drive you screaming mad with terror. But, really should we be afraid of birds? Do birds attack people?
Bird Attacks On Humans On The Rise
So, when I lived in Tempe, AZ, walking across the campus of ASU, every now and then an angry bird (probably a crow) would come swooping past my head a couple times, sending me running off and rethinking my route home. Birds general swoop past people when they are nesting near by, but it seems as we humans encroach on bird habitats and/or climate change causing bird habitats to shrink these type of attacks are becoming more common.
Birds Can Hold a Grudge and Remember Faces
So, if you do get swooped (... there it is ...) and you get the nerve to fight back. If the bird is part of an aggressive species (crows, jays, and magpies) which are known to be intelligent may remember you and hold a grudge. Even though we use the term, “birdbrain” as an insult, studies have shown that birds can outsmart children. They can remember individual human faces, expertly memorize and navigate human environments (like trash cans or like Hedwig in Harry Potter always finding Sirius), and they even hold funerals for their dead. So, you better watch out because they will remember you and will be checking it twice to settle that grudge.
So birds are intelligent, but will they group together and start making plans to rid the occupants of a newly built subdivision? Or was that a different movie about ghosts?—Let’s save that one for later—
Do Birds Of A Different Feather Flock Together? Should We Worry?
What makes up a flock of birds? There are two factors, 1) Size: Even though there is no set number of birds that have to be together, but large groups of birds or smaller groups of birds that are not often seen in groups are called flocks. 2) Species: Any large group of birds of different species can be called the generic term, flock (like at a watering hole, or gathering at an Airbnb at Bodega Bay). But when all birds are the same species or closely related they have specialized names.
So, if birds do flock up against us humans we should know what to yell out in horror. “Look over there it’s a ... “ Wake of buzzards or a murder of crows, or a convocation of eagles, or a mob of emus, or a flotilla of gulls, or an asylum of loons, or a squadron of pelicans, or after thanksgiving dinner you may have a rafter of turkeys after you, and you better get the words to the Twelve days of Christmas correct or a pitying of turtledoves could be diving at your head.”
Luckily, birds of a different feather do not usually flock together, unless they are sharing a watering hole or sometimes if they are defending against predators or conserving energy when flying. So, we may not have to worry about the birds squawking, “Avengers Assemble!”
Have Large Flocks of Birds Attacked Like in Fiction?
So, the potential exists that birds could conspire against us humans and attack if we encroach on their land or they see us as a threat, but has it happened already? Hitchcock himself may have been inspired not only by Daphne du Maurier story (which he used a few of her stories for inspiration), but by an actual 1961 bird attack in North Monterey Bay, CA. Thousands of seabirds regurgitated fish, and flew into houses and other objects killing themselves. It was later discovered that the birds had been poisoned by a nerve-damaging toxin (Domoic acid) produced by diatoms, and this caused the confusion and disorientation. Hitchcock lived in the region at the time of this event.
In 2020, Even Politics Go To The Birds
Maybe in this crazy year of 2020, bird politics may cause the birds to revolt against us humans for making them play along with our silly games, as there was a bit of controversy over the bird of the year award voting and eventual winner—a fat, flightless parrot. Good thing birds cannot read—Oh wait, it seems Pigeons can read, maybe—
Look Out From Above!
And here are the five bird species most likely to attack you because you voted for a fat flightless parrot:
1) The European Starling
2) The Barred Owl
3) Gulls
4) Canada Goose
5) The Northwestern Crow
Time to Leave Friendly Bodega Bay!
Awesome print of Tippi Hedren from The Birds by atomicnumber14
So, after dive bombing into the Rabbit Hole of Research, it seems birds have the intelligence and a number of plausible reasons (neurological agent, loss of habitat, or a twitter contest gone wrong) to attack a coastal town. But I think the whole thing could have been avoided if Mitch was more careful when flirting with the banditry of chickadees. Yet, if the birds never attacked in Hitchcock’s classic “The Birds,” we would be talking about Hitchcock’s classic Romance Comedy, “Mitch, Mother and the Two Lovebirds!”
And I’m sure Morris Day’s classic tune, “The Bird” would have been perfect on the soundtrack. Maybe Mitch could have bumped into Melanie while doing a brand new dance called “The Bird” at the Bodega Bay dance off.
”What time is it? Alright, y'all got 10 seconds
To get to the dance floor and whawk
America, have you heard?
I got a brand new dance and it's called "The Bird"
You don't need no finesse or no personality
You just need two arms and an attitude
And everybody sing with me, come on now
Whawk! Hallelujah! Whoa
Whawk! Hallelujah! Whoa”
Better keep an eye on the sky and the dance floor—Until Next Time!
Hope you enjoyed this little trip down my Rabbit Hole of Research, and will join me next time as I reveal the actual factual science in fiction and fantasy.
Did I get something wrong ... right? Let me know, please Email
Question for you: What’s your favorite pie? I enjoy Key Lime pie in the summer and Pumpkin pie in the winter! Let me know Email.
If you want to keep up with me on the interwebs, find me at your favorite digital hangout!
Writing Update:
So, the big news was the cover and release date (February 23 2021) was revealed for my debut Sci-Fi Psychological Thriller novel, “Will You Still Love Me If I Become Someone Else?”
I sent folks who signed up to read an Advance Copy of my Novel a download link last week. If you didn’t get the email (check that inbox) or want to receive a free e-book of my novel in exchange for a honest review (I have a few more slots available), click here
My Rom-Com novella will be released in a Box-Set, and the new cover was revealed. You can pre-order at your favorite e-book store:
I’m getting excited. I cannot wait to share this story with you all!
My Rom-Com novella, ‘Tomorrow May Be Too Late,” will be released in the Askew Ever After Box-Set, January 21st 2021. The very sexy cover was revealed.
You can pre-order at your favorite e-book store here! If you already placed an order, thank-you.
