| "The Birds" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by Daphne du Maurier | |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Genre(s) | Horror, thriller, novelette |
| Publication | |
| Published in | The Apple Tree |
| Publisher | Penguin Books |
| Media type | |
| Publication date | 1952 |
"The Birds" is a horror story by the British writer Daphne du Maurier, first published in her 1952 collection The Apple Tree. The story is set in du Maurier's home county of Cornwall shortly after the end of the Second World War. A farmhand, his family and community come under lethal attack from flocks of birds.
The story was the inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock's film The Birds, released in 1963, the same year that The Apple Tree was reprinted as The Birds and Other Stories. In 2009, the Irish playwright Conor McPherson adapted the story for the stage at Dublin's Gate Theatre.