“The Birds” by Daphne Du Maurier Number 21 of 27 Great British Short Stories
Premise: Birds Attack!!
Review: This is flocking fantastic. How did I not read this as a 13 year old of a nervous disposition (answer – neither of my parents could point me to particularly good alternatives to Doctor Bloody Who and I was too pig-headed to go looking). This is eerie, full of foreboding, body horror, all the rest of it. Read it here. NOW, dammit.
Outa ten: I have resisted the urge to give an 11 until now, but, well, this one goes up to eleven.
Keywords: Paranoia, fear, the Cold War, the war against nature, siege.
Sanderling
Brambling
Quotes:
“Perhaps,” thought Nat, munching his pasty by the cliff’s edge, “a message comes to the birds in autumn, like a warning. Winter is coming. Many of them perish. And like people who, apprehensive of death before their time, drive themselves to work or folly, the birds do likewise.” The birds had been more restless than ever this fall of the year, the agitation more marked because the days were still.
Nat turned and, leaving the beach, climbed the steep path home. Someone should know of this. Someone should be told. Something was happening, because of the east wind and the weather, that he did not understand. He wondered if he should go to the call box by the bus stop and ring Page 9 up the police. Yet what could they do? What could anyone do? Tens of thousands of gulls riding the sea there in the bay because of storm, because of hunger. The police would think him mad, or drunk, or take the statement from him with great calm. “Thank you. Yes, the matter has already been reported. The hard weather is driving the birds inland in great numbers.”
Various incidents were recounted, the suspected reason of cold and hunger stated again, and warnings to householders repeated. The announcer’s voice was smooth and suave. Nat had the impression that this man, in particular, treated the whole business as he would an elaborate joke. There would be others like him, hundreds of them, who did not know what it was to struggle in darkness with a flock of birds. There would be parties tonight in London, like the ones they gave on election nights. People standing about, shouting and laughing, getting drunk. “Come and watch the birds!” Nat switched off the wireless. He got up and started work on the kitchen windows. His wife watched him, young Johnny at her heels.
Words:
Sanderling (kind of bird) The Sanderling is a small, plump, energetic wading bird. It has a short and straight black bill and medium length black legs.
Brambling- The male Brambling has a black head in summer, and an orange breast with white belly. In flight it shows a white rump. Sociable in winter
Look up:
Nothing from the story – but these I googled
References
Bellanca, M. E. (2011). The Monstrosity of Predation in Daphne du Maurier’s “The Birds”. Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, 18(1), 26-46.
Choudhury, M. R. (2025). Interrogating Anthropocentrism and the Resultant Horror: A Posthumanist Study of Daphne Du Maurier’s “East Wind” and “the Birds”. In: Dhar, N., Mallick, B. (eds) Posthumanism and Literary Insights: A Critical Introduction. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-6807-6_14
Denhez, C. S. (2025). The Art of Uncertainty: Narrative Strategies in the Fiction of Daphne du Maurier (Doctoral dissertation, Concordia University).
Graff, T. (2022). Revenge of the Warbirds: The Impact of Armed Conflict on Nature. WLA; War, Literature and the Arts, 34, 1-16.
Habibi, H. (2020). ‘Restless Birds’: Avian Encounters in the Fiction of the Brontës and Daphne du Maurier (Doctoral dissertation, Durham University).
Huggett, L. B. (2022). Misreading the Body: Mutants and Masks in Three of Daphne du Maurier’s Post-War Stories:“The Little Photographer,”“Kiss Me Again, Stranger,” and “The Blue Lenses”. Journal of the Short Story in English. Les Cahiers de la nouvelle, (78), 103-122.
https://journals.openedition.org/jsse/3798
Ismael, Z. I., & Khalifa Ali, S. A. (2020). Women Pacifist Voices: The Antiwar Fiction of Elizabeth Bowen and Daphne du Maurier. Journal of Surra Man Raa.
Korkut-Nayki, N. (2012). The Supernatural and the Functions of the Gothic in Daphne du Maurier’s ‘The Birds’ and ‘Don’t Look Now’. K. Więckowska, The Gothic: Studies in History, Identity and Space, 127-133.
Lachazette, X. (2021). Using Animal Retribution Fiction for the Promotion of Environmental Awareness: the Case for a Reinterpretation of Daphne Du Maurier’s” The Birds”. e-Rea. Revue électronique d’études sur le monde anglophone, (18.2).
https://journals.openedition.org/erea/12148
Lima, M. A. (2009). Visions of Fear-The Power of Shock of du Maurier’s Suicide Birds.
Sarlej, Z. (2024). Eerie Ecologies: Rethinking Agency in Daphne du Maurier’s Nature Short Stories.
Thompson, T. W. (2010). Sourcing Arthur’s Last Stand in du Maurier’s “The Birds”. ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews, 23(1), 51-55.
https://doi.org/10.1080/08957690903496226
White, T. (2022). Simultaneous Immediacy in Two Stories by Daphne du Maurier:“The Birds” and “The Split Second”. Journal of the Short Story in English. Les Cahiers de la nouvelle, (78), 81-100.
https://journals.openedition.org/jsse/3783
Afterlives of the story/connections to other stuff: The Hitchcock film! But also Day of the Triffids and that whole 70s “Nature Bites Back” thing.
Is it online? Yes
marchudson.net 
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