Fear of birds

An abnormal and persistent fear of birds. Sufferers of this fear experience undue anxiety about encountering and even being attacked by birds although they may realize their fears are quite irrational. Fear of birds was epitomized in a 1963 film scripted by the novelist Daphne Du Maurier and the writer Evan Hunter (aka Ed McBain) and directed by the inimicable Alfred Hitchcock -- The Birds. Birds suddenly start attacking people in ever-greater numbers and ever-greater viciousness in this memorable and very frightening movie. Fear of birds is termed "ornithophobia," a word derived from the Greek and "ornithos" (bird) and "phobos" (fear).