In "The Birds", what California town do the birds attack?

In Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, the birds attack Bodega Bay, California. The film follows sudden, unexplained attacks that escalate from isolated incidents to a town-wide crisis, trapping residents and visitors in homes, restaurants, and other buildings.

Bodega Bay is a real coastal community in Sonoma County, north of San Francisco. Hitchcock used the location as the film’s main setting, although many scenes were filmed in nearby Bodega and on studio sets. The film’s fictional events unfold over only a few increasingly terrifying days, with no definitive explanation for why the birds become violent.

The movie was loosely adapted from Daphne du Maurier’s 1952 story “The Birds,” though the original is set in Cornwall and has a different plot and tone. Hitchcock also drew inspiration from a real 1961 incident in which seabirds swarmed Capitola, California.

A common mix-up is confusing Bodega Bay with Capitola. Capitola inspired part of the film’s atmosphere, but Bodega Bay is the California town attacked in the movie.