The Birds

Continuity mistake: When Lydia comes outside with Cathy's cake, the door behind her is open halfway, but later when the birds attack, you can see the door is now closed completely. (00:49:45 - 00:50:45)

Hamster

Continuity mistake: In one shot, a boy hides under a table, when the birds attack at Cathy's party. In the wide shot you can see the table is quite far onto the grass, away from the patio. But a few shots later, the table is right beside the patio. (00:50:20)

Hamster

Continuity mistake: At the children's party, when the birds attack, you can see a child roll under the table with the cake and other party snacks on it. The birthday cake swaps ends with the bowl of drink a few shots later, with nobody re-arranging it. (00:50:20)

Hamster

Continuity mistake: On the hill as Melanie talks to Mitch about her mother, the back of her collar changes between shots. (00:51:20)

????

Continuity mistake: In the shot of the party looking down from the top of the hill the barbecue is sitting behind and to the middle of two lounge chairs. In the next shot the barbecue is to the left of the two lounge chairs. At the end of the scene it's moved back. (00:51:35)

????

Continuity mistake: After Mitch finished pouring out the drinks for Melanie and himself there was still a little bit left in the bottle. He never pours out any more but as they get to the bottom of the hill when they throw away their glasses the bottle is empty. (00:51:35)

????

Continuity mistake: As Melanie and Mitch walk down the hill Annie and Cathy are standing in the middle of the yard with two other children between them and the lounge chair. In the next shot as we see Lydia carrying the cake, the two children disappear and Annie and Cathy have moved to the left closer to the door. (00:51:35)

????

Continuity mistake: As Mitch and Melanie walk down the hill he's behind her and they're not touching. In the next shot he has his left hand behind her. (00:51:35)

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Continuity mistake: When Annie turns to look at Lydia coming out of the house there are no shadows against the side of the house where the door is. In the next shot there's a shadow of a balloon there and the shadows on the back wall are spaced closer together. (00:51:50)

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Continuity mistake: As she carries the birthday cake out from the house, the position of Lydia's necklace changes between shots. (00:51:50)

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Continuity mistake: As Lydia looks at Melanie and Mitch walking down the hill, the large piece of molding in the corner between the door and window disappears between shots. (00:51:50)

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Continuity mistake: As Lydia carries the birthday cake out, the shades of the window behind her are open. When we see this window again a few seconds later as she runs into the house the shades are closed. (00:51:55)

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Continuity mistake: As Lydia carries the birthday cake out from the house the position of the vine growing on the pole on the right jumps from right to left between shots. (00:51:55)

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Continuity mistake: Annie's sweater and face go from having no sunlight on them to being in the sunlight, before she moves towards Cathy as the birds attack the party. (00:51:55)

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Continuity mistake: The doorknob on the door behind Lydia disappears between shots as she brings the cake out. (00:51:55)

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Continuity mistake: As Mitch and Melanie walk down the hill to the party the sun is behind them casting the shadows of the children towards the house. Three shots later in the close-up of Cathy the sun is in the opposite direction coming from across the bay. (00:52:00)

????

Continuity mistake: The house has only one gazebo and when the first bird swoops down at Cathy it flies over a different gazebo from the one we see later in the scene. The top is pointed and higher, and the correct one has a tree above almost touching it and shadows from the tree falling on it. (00:52:00)

????

Continuity mistake: The tall structure on the hill behind the swing set has a lot of clouds around it. When we see it seconds later the sky is clear. (00:52:05)

????

Continuity mistake: After Mitch runs to Annie and Cathy there's a fake movable bird behind the real bird to the right of the swing. It's gone when we see Mitch carry the little girl into the house. (00:52:20)

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Continuity mistake: When we first see the table with the food on it the sandwiches in the middle are piled up in interlocking stacks of three with one more pile of three or four sandwiches rising in the center. When we see the sandwiches again up close as Mitch brings the little girl into the house, they are neatly stacked above each other though not interlocking as before and the middle pile is not there. (00:52:25)

????

Visible crew/equipment: As Melanie drives up to have dinner at Mitch's, the reflection of the cameraman on the inside of the window can be seen moving in the upper-left hand portion of the screen. (00:32:10)

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More mistakes in The Birds

Mother in Diner: Why are they doing this? Why are they doing this? They said when you got here, the whole thing started. Who are you? What are you? Where did you come from? I think you're the cause of all this. I think you're evil. Evil!

More quotes from The Birds
More trivia for The Birds

Question: When the birds attack the town a gas station attendant is hit by a bird and drops the gas hose he is using to fill a car. The gasoline flows down the street and under a car; a man drops a match and lights the gas causing an explosion. Why didn't the gas pump shut off when the man dropped it?

michael g

Answer: The movie takes place in the 1960s, so presumably gas pumps worked a bit differently back then. This is also a small town and probably the gas station had not modernized. There may not have been automatic shut-offs, or if there was, it was faulty.

raywest

The automatic shut off is in the handle of the hose. When a person grips the handle they have to lift a levered switch to allow gas flow; the lever is spring loaded so that if it is released the gas will stop flowing. I have looked at older antique gas pumps and they are all the same; even the visible glass gravity flow ones. If that hose was dropped the the gas should have stopped flowing.

michael g

More questions & answers from The Birds

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