• jackThe Day of the Claw: a synoptic account of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (senses of cinema – issue 57 – Ken Mogg)
  • Camille Paglia  – a wonderful thing about Hitchcock is his double vision.  he sees the tragic dimension and the horrors of life, as in Psycho, but he also sees the comedy – 
  • The Terror 1917 – Arthur Machen – death by smothering of moths
  • Our Feathered Friends – Philip MacDonald – 1913 – a young, London couple go into the woods, have sex and are then attacked by the cute birds and what is left are two feathered mounds – ordered book
  • The Food of the Gods – H G Wells

The above are all believed to have influenced Hitchcock when making The Birds, as well as the cited Daphne Du Maurier book.

I see birds everyday – I live in Fowey – where Du Maurier lived – the birds dominate the skyline, the trees, the times of the day, the audio. – every day the jackdaws are outside, listening, watching.  I wanted to find out more about the intelligence of these birds

  • Do jackdaws have a memory for order? – journal Pfuhl & Bieglieu
  • A Crow never forgets
  • they remember the faces of dangerous humans
  • may scold those who threaten them bringing in relatives and even strangers to mob person
  • Dr Marzluff says – If you can learn who to avoid and who to seek out, that’s a lots easier than continually getting hurt – when discussing research about crows remembering faces (NY times AUG 25 – Friend or Foe)
  • Cambridge University – Department of Psychology – created similar experiment wearing masks  – to see if jackdaws could recognise faces – the good from the bad
  • large brain relative to body size
  • main call – metallic, squeaky, chyack-chyack – or kak-kak
  • feeding call – kiaw kyow (male)
  • perched birds chatter together
  • roosting flight in flocks before settling in for the night
  • can copy words
  • alarm call – arr, kaarrrr
  • between 1989/90 birds photographed removing caps of milk bottles delivered on doorsteps and drinking contents – humans who drank the milk were ill
  • greek mythology seen with a bowl of oil – looking down at it’s own reflection – narcissist