Inside “The Birds”'“ ”most controversial scene: New Alfred Hitchcock book sheds light on Tippi Hedren's ordeal

Kathleen PerriconeMon, May 25, 2026 at 3:00 PM UTC

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Tippi Hedren in 'The Birds' directed by Alfred Hitchcock
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A new Alfred Hitchcock biography sheds light on the controversial The Birds scene in which Tippi Hedren was attacked by seagulls and crows.

The actress has insisted for six decades that she was told only mechanical birds would be used, not real ones.

A Century of Hitchcock: The Man, the Myths, the Legacy is out on June 9.

Quite a squawk has been made over the years about the killer seagulls, ravens, and crows featured in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. Although many were mechanical, the majority were real — a detail that has had leading lady Tippi Hedren crying foul since 1963.

The actress insists she was given the impression the winged creatures would be fake, particularly for her character's dramatic solo scene, a controversy that's revisited in the new biography A Century of Hitchcock: The Man, the Myths, the Legacy.

Tippi Hedren in 'The Birds' controversial scene
Credit: FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty

In the film's climax, the bloodthirsty birds of Bodega Bay descend on the Brenner family home, pecking their way through the roof and threatening Lydia (Jessica Tandy), Mitch (Rod Taylor), and Cathy (Veronica Cartwright) barricaded downstairs with their houseguest Melanie Daniels (Hedren).

Melanie goes upstairs to check out the damage in the attic, and the moment she enters the room, she's overwhelmed by a flock of seagulls and crows. With the blonde cornered, the birds attack, gouging at her flesh from head to toe.

She survives, but is left catatonic from the near-death experience.

The making of the iconic horror scene was just as paralyzing for Hedren, a model who was discovered by Hitchcock when he saw the blonde in a television commercial for the diet drink Sego.

In the new biography, A Century of Hitchcock, the shoot is dissected by those involved, including Hedren, Hitchcock's crew, and the bird trainers.

Until cameras rolled, Hedren said she had been assured that mechanical birds would be used for the attic attack scene.

"But at the last minute they told me, kind of apologetically, that they'd have to use real birds," she told the press in 1963 when The Birds was released.

As the book points out, "Tippi Hedren's memories of filming the attic scene shifted over the years."

In 1984, she recounted how the prop men "hurled [the birds] at me for five days" inside a large cage built over the set to prevent the animals from flying away. One at a time, a seagull or crow was thrown at the actress, and in between takes, makeup artist Howard Smit would build up more fake cuts and blood, "which was very time-consuming and undoubtedly uncomfortable and arduous," writes author Tony Lee Moral.

Some of the birds were fastened to Hedren's shoulders, wrists, and ankles to ensure they got close enough to the actress. She "got a scratch" from one that was "way too close to my eye," she claimed in 2009. "It was harrowing at times, but I wasn't… badly hurt or anything like that. It was called acting."

Tippi Hedren (left) in 'The Birds' with Rod Taylor and Jessica Tandy
Credit: John Springer Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty

However, seven years later in Tippi: A Memoir, she wrote that filming the scene "was brutal and ugly and relentless." And when it was all over after five days, she claimed she collapsed crying on the studio floor, where she was left by the crew.

Others on the set remember the shoot differently.

"We were all looking out for her," insisted hair stylist Virginia Darcy, who massaged Hedren's shoulders between takes. "And even the bird man, he would throw birds at the side or at the camera so it looks like they are getting right at her. Some of them did get near her, and that's when I said it's too much."

Tippi Hedren and Alfred Hitchcock presenting 'The Birds' at the Cannes Film Festival
Credit: Jean Claude Pierdet\INA via Getty

"Hitchcock was all about reality, reality, reality," acknowledged bird trainer Bud Cardos. "He wouldn't intentionally hurt [Tippi], he wouldn't intentionally do anything, but the birds did fly at her. I think she panicked a couple of times from what I understand."

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A Century of Hitchcock: The Man, the Myths, the Legacy, which examines the "Master of Suspense" through archival material and fresh interviews, will be released on June 9.

Read the full chapter, titled "The Birds Comes Home to Roost," exclusively below.

Excerpt from A Century of Hitchcock: The Man, the Myths, the Legacy by Tony Lee Moral.

Tippi Hedren's memories of filming the attic scene shifted over the years. In 1963, when the film was first released, she told reporters, "At first they told me they were going to use mechanical birds. But at the last minute they told me, kind of apologetically that they'd have to use real birds. Since I'd never made a movie before, it didn't make much difference to me." In a 1984 interview Hedren remarked, "That scene was probably why he chose an unknown to do it. I was always under the impression that we'd use mechanical birds for that scene. It wasn't until the morning I was told by the Assistant Director Jim Brown, that the mechanical birds didn't work and we were going to use live ones. I had seen the trainers with thick leather gauntlets up to here, and a few scars and bites and scratches they had received." A cage was built over the set to keep the birds under control, and "inside the cage were five prop men with very large cartons, and the cartons were filled with ravens, crows and gulls. And the prop men . . . hurled [the birds] at me for five days. At the beginning it was alright. It was exhausting, and not just physically but emotionally."

The birds were sailed toward Hedren one at a time, while the cameraman captured shot after shot. As the scene proceeded, Hedren had to look progressively more bitten, scratched, and bloody. Makeup man Howard Smit pasted on more cuts and poured on more fake blood between takes, which was very time-consuming and undoubtedly uncomfortable and arduous for Hedren. "And I couldn't take [the makeup] off at lunchtime," she said. "I looked so horrible nobody could stand to eat lunch with me, so it got to be very lonely."

Gary Gero was the assistant to chief bird trainer Ray Berwick during filming, and he would continue to work with Berwick for the next twelve years. "It was a whole different day and age then and everyone's standards were different. I would say they threw birds at Tippi and it delivered the film. Why she didn't say something then and waited ... 50 years ... to complain I don't know. Ray was good friends and close to Tippi long after The Birds." Gero observed that such a long-delayed "complaint is potentially damaging to someone who isn't alive and can't defend themselves. If she wasn't onboard with it, she should have done something about it at the time."

Hedren's shifting accounts of the attic scene reflect the complex interplay of memory and public discourse. Her later descriptions emphasized the brutality of the ordeal, yet crew members Virginia Darcy and Rita Riggs recalled meticulous safety protocols and collaborative efforts to ensure her well-being. These contrasting narratives highlight the challenges of reconstructing historical events, where personal memory and collective myth often intersect.

In some interviews, Hedren claimed that Hitchcock hated the attic scene, and although he enjoyed scaring people, he hated to be scared himself. For a 1984 documentary, Hedren said that Hitchcock thought the scene was so brutal that he wouldn't even come out of his office until Bob Burks was ready to start filming. "I think ... he felt guilty," she said. "It took a whole week to film that scene and by the end of it, I collapsed out of exhaustion."

"Were you injured?" an interviewer asked.

"A little," said Hedren. "I burst into tears."

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As late as 1998 she affirmed, "No, [Hitchcock] didn't even like watching it. He sat in his office on the set most of the time. He really didn't like watching it."

In 2005 Hedren told SCTV radio, "Well actually, I think Hitch did a very kind thing for me, they told me they were going to use mechanical birds for that scene."

Years later, in 2014, Hedren maintained that she had been tricked into filming with live birds. "I went onto the set and there was no intention of using mechanical birds, there wasn't a mechanical bird around."

In 2016 Hedren wrote in her memoirs that filming the attic scene "was brutal and ugly and relentless," and she characterized it as a kind of retribution on Hitchcock's part.

Comparisons to the shower scene in Psycho were inevitable, including by Hedren herself: "If you remember the knifing scene in Psycho, done with a lot of short cuts, you have some idea how they did this scene. There are 155 separate shots that last about two minutes on the screen, and it took seven days to get them all." (Her details are inaccurate: it was 52 cuts and 78 camera setups during 45 seconds of film.) The Psycho shower scene, as well as the attempted strangulation in Dial M for Murder, also took a week to shoot, so the bird attack was in keeping with those set pieces, and despite being arduous for the novice actress, no personal malice was intended.

Bird trainer Bud Cardos, who was also on the set, said, "Hitchcock was all about reality, reality, reality. He wouldn't intentionally hurt [Tippi], he wouldn't intentionally do anything, but the birds did fly at her. I think she panicked a couple of times from what I understand."

Camera assistant Scott Kepler later talked with Leonard South about the infamous scene in the attic, and he was adamant that Ray Berwick would have ensured that his birds were not abused.

"There was one master shot that they didn't have in the can, when they tied birds to her ankles and to her wrist." Once that shot was filmed, the rest would be montage, quick cuts, and inserts. "Lenny was right behind the camera operating, and he was the most conscientious of guys," Kepler said. "If he saw any signs of abuse or danger, he would stop the camera and say, 'No, Hitch, we've got to do it differently.'"

South's daughter Anne-Marie agreed. "My father—everybody on the set—respected Hitch, but nobody would have allowed [filming] to go on for days and days and have [Hedren get] hurt. It just wasn't done that way."

As the production files testify, there was a representative from the American Humane Association on the set during filming to ensure that none of the birds were harmed, and renowned ornithologist Ken Stager of Los Angeles County Fish and Wildlife was on the call sheet as a consultant.

Evan Hunter's wife Anita was on set that day with her three boys and witnessed the filming. "Hitchcock couldn't get the response that he wanted from [Hedren], so he threw live birds at her to get the reaction," she recalled.

Hunter wrote about the scene in his memoirs. "I saw the rushes that day, and it's all true, everything they said about the Tippi ordeal," he claimed. "You could hear Hitch's voice offscreen, 'Hurry up! Hurry up! Let's go. Let's go,' snapping his fingers, and they'd start again, throwing the birds at her."

Richard Hunter recalled a conversation he had with his father during his teenage years. "The gist of his statement was that Hedren was eager to be a star, and to achieve that goal, it included having live birds fired at her face for hours on end. In other words, my father averred that she was absolutely a voluntary participant in that brutal shoot."

Regarding his father's general opinion of Hedren, Richard believed he considered her a beautiful and ambitious woman but not a very talented actress. In fact, he rarely spoke of any of the actors who worked on The Birds. "I think that so far as he was concerned, the actors, if not quite interchangeable, were far less important to the success of that movie than the writer and the director."

'A Century of Hitchcock: The Man, the Myths, the Legacy' by Tony Lee Moral
Credit: Michel Vrana/University Press of Kentucky

For years, Hedren repeatedly claimed, "Everybody lied to me" about the attic scene. But Virginia Darcy refuted that statement: "Nobody lied to her," she said. "We were all looking out for her. And even the bird man, he would throw birds at the side or at the camera so it looks like they are getting right at her. Some of them did get near her, and that's when I said it's too much."

Between takes, Darcy would give Hedren a banana smoothie and massage her shoulders to calm her down.

According to Marco Lopez, "He was trying to make her the next leading lady, like he did with Vera Miles. But I never saw any tension on the set. Tippi was a real trooper and tolerated a lot of stuff. I never saw that she was resentful or had any hard feelings about it."

On Friday afternoon, after five days of continuous filming, one of the birds tied to Hedren's shoulder jumped and got close to her eye.

"The only injury I had was when I was down on the floor, and before they put the dress on, they ... tied the birds to me." She "got a scratch" from a bird that was "way too close to my eye," Hedren said. "It was harrowing at times, but I wasn't... badly hurt or anything like that. It was called acting," she said in an interview in 2009.

At the end of five days of filming on Friday, Hedren finally broke down crying. She claimed everybody just left her on the studio floor until Noel Marshall picked her up and drove her home. But by 2016, Hedren's recollections had changed: despite being "completely spent, empty, and alone," she met a doctor friend from New York at the Beverly Hills Hotel Polo Lounge.

In another interview, Hedren said, "I got home that evening, and it was the nanny's weekend off, so I took care of my daughter. Monday morning I don't remember driving to the studio, I lay on the couch, my makeup man couldn't wake me up."

"She was in bed for three days—kaput," Hitchcock told François Truffaut.

Donald Spoto exaggerated her convalescence in his 2008 book Spellbound by Beauty, stating that Hedren was in bed for ten days. According to Spoto, the doctor asked, "Are you trying to kill her?"

The three days' rest were confirmed in correspondence after the film was released. Many fans were anxious to know if Hedren had really been hurt, and secretary Suzanne Gauthier responded to fan mail and audience queries.

"Miss Hedren was not injured in the shooting of the picture, however she had to take a three-day rest after working so strenuously during that sequence," Gauthier wrote in May 1963.

Another letter stated, "Miss Hedren was not injured during production but the strain of playing her role, particularly when the birds attack in the attic, caused her to have a three day stretch just to rest. However as I say she was not injured."

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