Advertisement
Alfred Hitchcock had already made a name for himself when The Birds swooped into production in 1963. It was a movie that came off the success of Psycho, and subsequently, expectations were high. Hitchcock knew the next film had to be terrifying in a whole new way, and being the perfectionist, he pushed everything to the edge, especially his actors and crew.
According to Collider, the movie was based on a short story by Daphne du Maurier, but what Alfred Hitchcock created was something far more intense and surreal. He brought in writer Evan Hunter to handle the screenplay, giving him total freedom. Hunter imagined striking scenes of violent bird attacks without worrying about how they’d be filmed. That responsibility would later fall on others, and the job turned out to be anything but simple.
Originally, Hitchcock planned to use mechanical birds, and over $200,000 was spent developing them. However, they looked ridiculous on screen, so the idea was quickly dropped, and instead, the team turned to real birds.
Advertisement
Animal trainer Ray Berwick had the daunting task of capturing thousands of wild gulls, crows, sparrows, and other species. The smarter birds, like crows and ravens, learned fast and became harder to catch. Berwick eventually found a large nesting site in Arizona. He and his crew dressed in black, painted their faces, and snuck in at night to net them while they slept. In the end, more than 25,000 birds were brought to the set.
The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, 1963). pic.twitter.com/Zg1Di4WSHG
— Albert Galera (@AlbertGalera) May 22, 2025
The birds were not tame, though. Crew members were routinely scratched and bitten, and the gulls, in particular, seemed to aim straight for the eyes. Berwick told Cinefantastique in 1980, “We had about 12 or 13 crew members in the hospital in one day from bites and scratches. The seagulls would deliberately go for your eyes. I got bitten in the eye region at least three times, and Tippi got a pretty nasty gash when one of the birds hit her right above the eye.”
To calm the birds down, some were fed wheat soaked in whiskey while others were drugged and tied to rooftops. They were kept dangling helplessly when they slipped off. On top of all this, the birds brought lice with them, which they spread among the cast and crew.
The birds even managed to escape during filming. A group of crows settled in a tree near Hitchcock’s office and made a habit of targeting his car. They refused to leave, so the maintenance team had to cut the tree’s branches to get rid of them.
As difficult as the birds were, the experience was even more painful for Tippi Hedren. Alfred Hitchcock had discovered her in a TV commercial and signed her to a seven-year contract. The catch, though, is that Hedren was not an actress. She was just a model in New York, and being a single mom, the deal gave her financial stability. But little did she know at the time that the job came with a cost.
According to Hedren, Hitchcock’s interest in her quickly turned disturbing. He became possessive and reacted coldly whenever she interacted with other men on set. Moreover, he watched her constantly, and his behavior grew more invasive over time. He allegedly followed her, ordered her to be watched, and once assaulted her in his car.
Alfred Hitchcock and Tippi Hedren for The Birds (1963) Photographed by Ronald Grant pic.twitter.com/3qeO9emgaB
— Evoke A Feeling… (@CineAngela60s) August 3, 2022
The very next day after that alleged assault, Hedren had to shoot a phone booth (which was supposed to be shatterproof) scene where birds slam into the glass repeatedly. The glass broke during filming, and tiny shards sprayed into her face. A makeup artist spent hours picking the pieces out.
Whether it was a mistake or something darker is a different conjecture, but the damage was done. Hedren never blamed Hitchcock for the ordeal, but after several years, she wondered if she “was being punished for rejecting him.”
That wasn’t the worst of it. For the film’s climactic attic scene, she’d been promised mechanical birds. But as many of you would have probably guessed by now, handlers hurled live ones at her for five days straight. They were trained to peck and scratch, and being wild, didn’t need much encouragement. On the fifth day, birds were tied to her clothes – yes, you read that right. She lay on the floor as they attacked her nonstop, and even worse, one pecked near her eye. After being overwhelmed by the relentless on-and-off set torture and Hitchcock’s authoritarian direction, she finally broke down. The famous Cary Grant, who also happened to be one of Hitchcock’s personal favorites, visited the set one day during that time and reportedly told her, “You’re the bravest woman I’ve ever seen.”
A doctor gave her a week off despite Alfred Hitchcock’s objections. Thankfully, Hedren got a week off during which she rested, either sleeping or half-conscious, but when she returned, she was determined to finish it once and for all. Given the endless complications, it’s surprising that The Birds was completed. But it was, and it became one of Hitchcock’s most talked-about films.
![The Birds (1963) [Trailer]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/0fJh2gIBOto/hqdefault.jpg)
For more such stories, check out Hollywood News
Follow Us: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube | Google News
Advertisement
