Films: The Birds (1963)

Alias: Seagulls, Crows, Sparrows

Type: Natural

Location: Civilized Area

Height/Weight: From 16 cm and 24 grams to 66 cm and 1,180 grams.

Affiliation: Neutral

Summary: It just happened. Like any other natural disaster, like earthquakes and floods, the swarm of birds that raided California was an event that occurred with no pretense or warning. One big pecking flock of little terrors that had a coastal town in an icy grip for some time. Why? It does not matter. It just doesn't.

History: Like we said, the diverse array of birds just decided inexplicably that today would be the day that the people feel the death of a thousand pecks. It could be anything. The history of birds being under man's mercy, a shift in environmental conditions, food shortage, the list goes on. Just pray for the countless civilians having to duck and cover.

Notable Kills: One farmer is found cut all over and his eyes gorily pecked out. Another perishes after the birds cause gasoline to spill over as he lights a cigar. Cue him and a gas station going up in flames.

Final Fate: After some more carnage, the birds just stop. They watch as a group leaves in their car with an eerie silence (for a while, at least). What happens next? None can say.

Powers/Abilities: None.

Weakness: Anything conventional.

Scariness Factor: 4.5-From their inexplicable appearance to how they can swarm someone in seconds, these birds leave nothing to chance, and will find a way to get past your barricaded home and peck out every soft bit they can find. This is not a pleasant way to go out.

Trivia: -The original ending, held back by budget costs, involved a whole army of birds perched on the Golden Gate. How nice would that have been.

-Alfred Hitchcock was inspired to make this film after a 1961 article stated how flocks of dead birds had crashed onto the roofs of houses in California and littered the streets. A potential cause for the incident was said to have been food poisoning.