When Alfred Hitchcock, the Master of Suspense, released The Birds in 1963, film fans constructed theories about the movie’s meaning. Although he alluded to the film being revenge for humans’ treatment of birds, Hitchcock remained ambiguous about why flocks of aggressive avians swooped down to attack a population, adding fuel to the fire.

As time went on, more theories arose, linking the film to Sigmund Freud’s psychology, female sexuality, humans’ overall lack of respect for the environment, and more. There’s also an undercurrent throughout the plot that represents the love between two people and a mother’s jealousy. In the mysterious ending, there is no clear answer.

Some film buffs class Hitchcock’s body of work as horror. Some disagree and file it under the thriller genre. Like many of his classic films, The Birds sits between the two. However, many agree on one thing: it’s a twisted, chilling, and disturbing piece of art that still stands as strongly over 60 years later.

How Much of The Birds Is Fact or Fiction?
Release Date March 29, 1963 Cast Rod Taylor , Tippi Hedren , Jessica Tandy , Suzanne Pleshette , Veronica Cartwright Runtime 1hr 59min Writers Daphne Du Maurier , Evan Hunter Studio Alfred J. Hitchcock Productions Expand

​​​​​Hitchcock directed over 50 movies, with The Birds often featuring highly in countdowns of his work. Using ubiquitous and suddenly threatening creatures as the driving force rather than humans sets it apart from his other masterpieces. As Popular Science reports, Hitchcock was actually inspired by true events. In 1961, he was adapting Daphne du Maurier’s book, The Birds, into a screenplay, and the news came in: Eight people in Santa Cruz, California, were bitten by sooty shearwater birds for seemingly no reason.

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In Hitchcock’s story, the unlikable protagonist, socialite Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren), meets lawyer Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) in a pet store. Brenner pokes fun at Daniels, so she decides to play a prank by delivering two lovebirds to Bodega Bay, where Brenner lives, as a surprise. That’s obviously deeply meaningful, with the notion of caged birds representing domesticated love (and possibly repression) as opposed to uncaged liberation (and the threat of violence and chaos). From this point in the plot, one seagull attacks Daniels, and events escalate with thousands of birds descending upon the area to terrorize the bay.

A scene takes place in a diner, comparing the apocalyptic experience to the true story Hitchcock was, in part, inspired by. The first theory revealed is that the birds are lost in the fog. A customer cries, “Hey, something like this happened in Santa Cruz last year.” Another replied, “A large flock of seagulls got lost in the fog and headed into the town where all the lights were.” But this simplistic theory does not satisfy those who want to dive deeper.

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Another Mother and Son Dynamic?

It’s possible that Hitchcock intended the film to have many layers of meaning. Neurologist and psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud’s theory states that the unconscious mind can house repressed emotions, concealed memories, habits, thoughts, and desires, which the conscious mind wants to push to the bottom. Hitchcock explored this notion in other films, through the disturbed character Norman Bates in Psycho from 1960 and the icy role of Marnie in the self-titled 1964 film.

For The Birds, there have been thoughts that the vicious birds are the subconscious thoughts of Brenner’s possessive, neurotic mother, Lydia Brennan (Jessica Tandy), who’s petrified about losing her beloved son to another woman. Mitch is rather old to be a bachelor, and Hitchcock had just made Psycho, another film about a twisted mother-and-son relationship. The chain-smoking and arguably sexually frustrated character of Annie even tells Melanie at one point, “Maybe there’s never been anything between Mitch and any girl.” But film writer Jonathon Simmons isn’t so sure, pointing out, “Over Union Square, the birds begin massing before Lydia and Mitch have met Melanie.”

The Birds & Women’s Sexual Liberation

“Bird,” by the way, was a common slang term for women at the time, especially in Hitchcock’s home country (and the title, of course, brings to mind the colloquialism, “the birds and the bees”). So let’s talk sex. In America, the ’60s was a time for sexual exploration. Women were in control of their bodies through the introduction of the contraceptive pill. Melanie Daniels from liberal San Francisco is a threat to the more traditional housewives of Bodega Bay. The glamorous Daniels actively pursues a man, and there were rumors that she jumped into a fountain in Rome completely naked.

Daniels lived her life in San Francisco freely without caring what others think. The women on the bay were disgusted yet curious, even jealous. Their thoughts about sexuality and their place in society bubble to the surface in the form of birds. This also links to Freud’s theory of the uncanny. As James Ruers says, “The uncanny arises when childhood beliefs we have grown out of suddenly seem real. Freud called it ‘the return of the repressed.'” In The Birds, Daniels brings sexuality to Bodega Bay, causing an eruption in the repressed desires of its sexless inhabitants.

Explaining The Birds’ Eerie Ending
Universal Pictures

Environmental matters is a logical theory of the film. How humans care for the planet and the animals isn’t always fair; it’s not birds who cause distress on Earth but people. In a teaser trailer for the film, Hitchcock explains, “It’s about the birds and their age-long relationship with man.” Being ironic, he refers to birds as ‘man’s friends’ but then explains how hens are imprisoned for their eggs and birds are kept in tiny cages as pets, unable to fly in the sunlight.

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Nearing the end, the female characters realize they need each other; sisterhood empowers women. Daniels starts to see Lydia Brennan as a mother figure, especially after Brennan comforts her after a ferocious raven attack in the attic. The mood then quiets eerily, as Brennan, with Daniels in his arms, and his mother and sister Cathy creep into the car; it’s almost as if, once Daniels and Mitch and his mother accepted each other and bonded lovingly, the anger of the birds ceased. Suspense builds as hundreds of birds surround the house. The viewer isn’t sure if a devastating onslaught will commence. The four drive off, and it’s unclear why the birds aren’t moving. Their stillness hints that the avians were in control of their actions the whole time.

The lovebirds from the pet store also drive off in the car. Coincidentally, Daniels’ outfit throughout the film is the same green color as the lovebirds in the cage. Maybe Melanie Daniels just wanted to be loved all along — caged or uncaged. But, as Hitchcock desired, that’s for the viewer to decide. The Birds is available to rent or buy on regular digital platforms, and is currently streaming on Netflix through the link below:

Watch The Birds