The Birds (1963)
Alfred Hitchcock originally wanted to use artificial birds with motorized wings for his story of birds terrorizing a coastal California town, which starred Tippi Hedren, who will soon turn up again on this list.
Despite spending about $200,000 (about $2 million in 2024 dollars) on the birds, only a few of them turned up in the final film, according to this excellent piece by Cinefantastique about the making of The Birds.
Ultimately, about 25,000 birds were used in the filming. “Pound for pound, I think the raven and the cockatoo are the most intelligent beings on earth,” bird expert Ray Berwick told Cinefantastique. He and the crew soon learned to be careful around them, he told the magazine.
“We had about 12 or 13 crew members in the hospital in one day from bites and scratches,” he said. “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.”
Still, you can’t argue with the results: The Birds is widely considered one of the best killer animal movies, along with Jaws, which, of course, did not use a real shark.
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