"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.
Nat Hocken, a disabled war veteran, works part time for Mr Trigg at his farm on the Cornish coast.
One day in early December, he notices unusually large flocks of birds behaving restlessly, and he muses that they have received a message that winter is coming.
As he walks to the beach to dispose of the dead birds, he realises that what appear to be whitecaps on the sea are actually tens of thousands of gulls riding the waves, apparently waiting.
Picking up his daughter from the school bus stop, Nat spots Mr Trigg who agrees to take her home in his car.
Nat brings the family into the kitchen for safety, from where they can hear the muffled sounds of birds pressed together on the window sills, trying to force an entry.
One interpretation of the story suggests that it reflects the British experience during the Second World War, evoking anxieties about the government's failure to protect their citizens and intrusions into domestic spaces by aggressive interlopers.