Tippi Hedren getting her cigarette lit by a Raven, 1962

Tippi Hedren photographed by Philippe Halsman for The Birds (1962)

“When we were making The Birds, one of the ravens was so sweet that bird trainer Ray Berwick wouldn’t teach him all the bad things to do, like peck people and dive-bomb. That raven became my buddy. He’d come up and sit in my dressing room on the set, play with my makeup, and throw it on the floor. I’d walk around on the set with him on my shoulders. Birds I am fine with—spiders are an entirely different matter.” -Tippi Hedren 

Screen legend Tippi Hedren poses with a fine feathered friend in a publicity portrait for the Universal Pictures/Alfred Hitchcock horror thriller The Birds, 1963.

In the 1963 film The Birds, Tippi Hedren was required to really slap Doreen Lang, who played the hysterical mother that called Melanie “evil.” Hedren was hesitant, having never slapped anyone before, but Lang convinced her to do it (x).

Tippi Hedren having her cigarette lit by a crow on the set of “The Birds” 1963.
Directed by the one and only Alfred Hitchcock.