The Birds Summary | Detailed Summary
It is December 3. Until today it had been balmy, now it is suddenly winter. Nat Hocken works part time on the farm doing light, easy jobs. He was disabled in the war, and he Hocken likes to work alone, along the edge of the sea. At lunchtime, he watches the birds.
The birds always become restless at the beginning of winter. They fly around hurriedly but without direction. They would follow Nat on his tractor. Both he and the farmer notice that there seem to be more birds this year. The birds have been getting very close to the farmer, unafraid.
Nat is awakened by a cold draft that night. He hears a tapping at the window. Nat goes to the window, opens it, and is suddenly pecked in the hand by a bird. His knuckles are bleeding. Nat goes back to bed. Again a tapping at the window awakens him. His wife wakes, too, and asks him to make the noise stop. He dutifully goes to the window and opens it. This time, six birds fly at his face, trying to peck at it. He shoos them away and quickly closes the window.
Just then the couple hears their daughter scream from the other room. Nat goes to investigate. As he enters the other bedroom both children are screaming. The window is open and there are birds flying around the room. Nat shoves his children outside the bedroom, leaving him alone with the birds. He tries to fight them off with a blanket, but he soon wraps it around his head for protection and swings at them with his arms. He fights them until the sun comes up and they leave. Nat removes the blanket from his head and sees that there are approximately 50 small birds dead on the floor, some of which have Nat's blood on their beaks.
Nat goes into his bedroom where his wife is holding their sleeping children. He tells her about the birds but reassures her that they are restless because of the sudden change in weather. The family has breakfast, and Nat decides to walk his daughter to the school bus. He tells his wife that he will go to the farm to see whether anyone else had a similar experience.
Nat's boss is not at the farm but he tells his boss's wife about the trouble they had last night. She does not seem to believe his story. The cowman, Jim, does not think much of the birds, either.
Nat goes back to his cottage and gathers all the dead birds into a sack. He tries to bury them, but the ground is frozen. Nat thinks it will be easier to dig a hole on the beach. The beach is very cold. It is the coldest temperature that Nat has ever felt. He digs a hole, but before he puts the birds into it, a strong wind scatters the dead bodies all over the beach. Nat looks out into the sea and figures that the tide will take them out. He looks closer and realizes that it was not whitecaps on the water that he was looking at; rather, it was tens of thousands of seagulls.
As Nat walks away from the beach, he considers notifying someone about the unusual number of birds. He does not think that anyone would believe him. When he reaches his cottage, his wife tells him that there was news about the birds on the wireless. There were birds all over the country and in London. It is suspected that the birds have been disrupted by the cold and are hungry. People are warned to watch after their children and close up any entry into their homes.
Nat spends the rest of the morning blocking the chimney and boarding up the windows. At lunch, they listen to reports of business coming to a halt in London because people were outside watching the birds. Nat spends the rest of the afternoon continuing to board up the windows. He also checks on their food supply. His wife informs him that tomorrow was shopping day but he figures they will be all right for a few days.
At 3, Nat goes outside and notices that it looks prematurely dark. He walks down to the beach and sees that it is the seagulls that have risen from the water and are hovering overhead that have made it dark. He tells his wife to stay inside and goes to his daughter's bus stop to wait for her. He brings a hoe with him for protection.
His daughter gets off the bus, and he sends the other children home. He walks quickly to their cottage. Jill notices the gulls and is scared that her father is moving so quickly. Soon the pair is running. Just then, they spot the farmer in his truck. He and his friends are going to shoot the gulls. Nat asks him to take Jill home because she is frightened. The truck comes back, and the farmer informs Nat that his daughter is safe at home. The farmer has not bothered to board up his windows. They ask Nat to join them once more, but he refuses.
As Nat is nearing his cottage, the birds suddenly attack, pecking him until they draw blood. He makes it to the cottage, and his wife closes the door behind him. His wife bandages him up, and he reassures her and their children that he has boarded up the windows. They can hear the birds slam into the house trying to get in. Nat reinforces the boards. He can hear the shattering of the windows on the other side. He is unsure of how well the bedroom chimneys are blocked, so he brings the mattresses downstairs. He tells his family that it will be like camping.
They listen to the news. A national emergency has been issued. No one is to go outside, and all citizens are to cover any entry into their homes. There will be no more wireless until the next morning. The family has dinner early to distract the children. During dinner, they hear planes overhead and perhaps gunfire. Nat's wife believes that the planes will make the birds go away. Suddenly, they hear a big crashing noise and then a few more. Nat knows that the planes have crashed.
The birds have stopped attacking the house. Nat believes that they attack when the tide is high. He figures they will start attacking again in the middle of the night. After the children have fallen asleep, he quietly opens the door. There are dead birds everywhere. He thinks that if he piles the dead birds up against the windows, it will afford another level of protection against the next attack. Every window is broken. The boards are the only reason the birds did not get into the house. Nat packs the dead birds in the space of the window glass. When he is finished, he goes inside and falls asleep.
Nat's wife wakes him up. The birds have begun again. She also smells something odd. Nat jumps up and realized he had failed to keep the fire going throughout the night. The smell is burnt bird feathers. The birds are flying down the chimney. Nat quickly gets the fire going again. Dead birds fall into the fire, and he rakes them out.
After breakfast, Nat goes upstairs to search for furniture that he can use to strengthen the door. He can hear the wood splinter. He realizes that the birds are inside his children's room. Once the sun rises, and the tide lowers, the birds once again stop attacking.
Nat tells his wife that he must go to the farm for more supplies. She begs him to take them with him and he agrees. Dead birds are scattered everywhere and the living birds are sitting watching the family. They will not attack until the tide comes in again. Nat goes to the farm first and sees that the farmer, his wife, and the cowman are all dead. He drives the farmer's car to his wife and children telling them to stay inside while he loads it with supplies. His wife wants to help but realizes what must have happened. Nat and his family take three trips with the car. They make a trip to the phone near the bus stop, but there is no service. They see the body of the postman on the side of the road and notice that there is no smoke coming from the other cottages.
After unloading all the supplies, Nat strengthens the upstairs chimney openings, the windows, and doors. Just as he is finishing, he notices that the seagulls have once again risen from the water. Once he is inside, the birds resume their attack. He has a new idea to strengthen the windows with barbed wire, but he would have to do that tonight after the attacks stop.
As Nat smokes his last cigarette, he wonders what has caused the birds to attack everything. What, in their memories, has caused them to turn?