Hitchcock's Feathered Friends - "The Birds" Quiz

Answer: Davidson's Pet Shop

We see the name of the pet store twice very early in the film, first when Melanie is about to enter but instead turns to stare at the seagulls flying over San Francisco and then again moments later when Hitchcock himself, in his cameo, exits the pet store walking two white dogs.

Answer: The Tides Restaurant

The Tides Restaurant figures prominently in the film a bit later, too. This is an actual restaurant in Bodega Bay, though now it is called The Tides Wharf and Restaurant.

Answer: gardening

When Melanie arrives, Annie comes out from her back yard and says, "This tilling of the soil can become compulsive." As it turns out, Annie is a very down-to-earth woman who moved to Bodega Bay just to be near Mitch, with whom she had once had a relationship. Unlike Melanie, she is not a sophisticated, well dressed woman.

Answer: on a stool in the livingroom

After placing the cage on the stool, Melanie props an envelope with Cathy's name on it against the cage. Then she tears an envelope with Mitch's name on it in two, and places the pieces back in her purse.

Answer: throw a rock at the birds who have killed Annie

When Mitch and Melanie arrive at Annie's to retrieve Cathy, Annie is lying dead at the foot of the porch steps and birds cover the roof of the house. Naturally, Mitch is furious and he nearly loses his temper and chucks a rock at the birds; however, Melanie stops him. Ultimately, Mitch realizes that antagonizing the birds might harm all of them, especially his little sister.

Answer: shot her in the head

When Melanie comes over to the Brenner home for dinner, she and Cathy chat about Mitch's job as a lawyer. Cathy is the one who shares with Melanie that one of MItch's clients shot his wife in the head six times. When Melanie asks Mitch why the client did so, Mitch says that the wife changed the TV channel when her husband was watching a game.

Answer: creating fog

The camera is actually trained on Melanie in this scene. She has noticed that the birds are just beginning to launch another attack, and as she looks out the window, we can overhear Mitch and Sebastian talking. Their conversation is cut short, though, when the attack begins and they rush outside.

Answer: the broken teacups

Although it strikes Lydia as odd that Dan does not answer the door, she doesn't truly look worried until she enters his kitchen and sees that the tea cups hanging on the china hutch are all broken. Her experience at Dan's just goes downhill from there.

Answer: Frank

Lydia mentions her husband by name just once, when she is resting in bed following her discovery of poor Dan Fawcett. Frank felt much more comfortable entering into the world of the children than Lydia does.

Answer: we never learn

We can only speculate as to why the birds are attacking because the reason for their attacks is never explained. In my reading about "The Birds", the most common interpretation of the birds is that they represent the shallow way in which humans so often treat each other. In fact, each bird attack is preceded by a somewhat shallow or dishonest exchange between people.