Hitchcock’s Birds Mystery Solved of the Day: Scientists say they’ve solved the mystery of the real-life flock of birds that inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller The Birds.
The real-life bird attack occurred in California’s Monterey Bay during the summer of 1961, when disoriented seabirds began ramming themselves into local homes. Marine biologist Sibel Bargu of Louisiana State University says she knows why it happened.
“I am pretty convinced that the birds were poisoned,” she says.
After studying the stomach contents of birds and turtles gathered from the area in ship surveys back in 1961, Bargu and her colleagues determined that the birds likely anchovies and squid that had been contaminated by toxic algae.
The toxins cause confusion, seizures and death in birds.
Evidence gathered by Bargu and her team confirms the findings of a 2008 study, which also suggested that leaky septic tanks in the area made the toxic algae problem much worse.
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