The Birds

Plot

Beautiful and young Melanie Daniels ("Tippi" Hedren), a wealthy socialite whose father is the proprietor of a large newspaper, visits a San Francisco pet shop to pick up a myna bird she has ordered for her aunt. There, Melanie meets Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), a lawyer who is looking for a pair of lovebirds to give to his young sister.

Intrigued by him, she buys the lovebirds and finds the address for Mitch's home in Bodega Bay, a small coastal village up the Pacific coast. Melanie drives to Bodega Bay and delivers the birds by sneaking across the small harbor in a motor boat to the Brenner residence. Melanie walks right into the house and leaves the birds on a table with a note. As Melanie is heading back across the bay, Mitch circles around in his car to meet her. Just as she is about to pull up to the dock, a seagull swoops down and gashes her head.

Over the next few days the avian attacks continue, as Melanie develops relationships with Mitch, his clinging mother, Lydia (Jessica Tandy), his teenage sister, Cathy (Veronica Cartwright), and Cathy's teacher (and Mitch's former lover), Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette). The attacks escalate from a few birds strafing Cathy's birthday party, to a neighboring farmer's gruesome death, to a mass attack on the town's children at their school.

The climax of the film comes as a seagull attack on the harbor-front results in a fire and more deaths. Melanie and Mitch's family ultimately take refuge in Mitch's house, where Mitch saves Melanie from birds who have broken into the attic. Lydia and Mitch bandage Melanie's wounds, but determine she must get to a hospital. In a surreal and apocalyptic scene, a sea of landed birds ripples menacingly around them as they leave the house, but does not attack. The car radio gives reports of several smaller attacks by birds in a few other communities in coastal California. The sea of birds parts as they slowly proceed toward the road and pick up speed. The film concludes with the sun rising as the four of them drive away from the farm, down the coast road and out of sight.