Who wrote the short story that inspired 'The Birds'?

Who wrote the short story that inspired 'The Birds'? Daphne du Maurier wrote it. Her horror story “The Birds” first appeared in 1952 in the collection The Apple Tree, later retitled The Birds and Other Stories. It follows Nat Hocken, a disabled war veteran living with his family in coastal Cornwall after the Second World War.

In du Maurier’s story, birds across Britain launch organized, relentless attacks on people and buildings. The narrative is bleak and largely confined to Nat’s struggle to protect his family as supplies, communications, and public order collapse. The story never gives a scientific explanation for the birds’ behavior, which strengthens its atmosphere of helplessness and uncertainty.

Hitchcock’s 1963 film uses du Maurier’s premise but is not a direct scene-by-scene adaptation. The film shifts the setting to California, introduces new principal characters such as Melanie Daniels and Mitch Brenner, and emphasizes romantic and social tensions. Du Maurier said the idea was prompted by seeing a farmer attacked by gulls while ploughing a field. A common mistake is assuming the film came from an original Hitchcock story; du Maurier created the literary source.