You're stupid, lol

You did not list Africa. that is 6 then, not 5.

Maybe they didnt catch that in the editing. If she did not count the penguins it would be five cause north america,south america, europe, asia,and austrailia.

This movie is dead to me because I simply can not get over the fact she says 5 continents. No one at all anywhere in the wrld in the 1950s and 60s considered there to be less than 7. Period.

I dont know, she gets on my wick anyhow the old lady.
You have Melanie explaining about the attack and she's going 'impossible, that didnt happen, birds dont attak together blah blah blah.''
If I was melanie I'd have said 'listen you old wind bag, I didnt make it up, go outside and make me a lier you stupid think you know it all loud mouth nosy cow. No body ASKED your opinion so shut up. ''
And when she lost her eye or whatever it was I'd have said to her 'Ah proved you wrong!!'

Why does it bother you people that others notice such details? Some of us just care about knowledge. It does not interfere with our enjoyment of the movierather, it increases that aspect because we pay attention to details. Do you get bent out of shape over Jeopardy viewers too?

Thats interesting but the movie does not take place in Euorpe.

1931. Thats an interesting historica tid-bit but ? This movie takes place in the late 1960s.
      And would Antartica have an olympic team anyway?

Interesting that you do not name the country where they sapozedly teach that. I call b.s.

what a great excuse. would your spelling be improved if you turned off the auto-correct or about the same? you can also review what you've typed prior to pressing send. just a suggestion.

Oh I use a cell phone it changes what I type in some type of autocomplete. To the wrong thing. You couldn't tell?

like your spelling?

its not a big deal but the sence lasts like 10 minutes long thats a major blunder in flim-time.

Why is this a big deal, anyways? So the screenwriter mistakenly or consciously neglected Australia and Antarctica. The fact that Mrs. Bundy used the words "ALL five continents" and not "five of the world's continents" gets her basic message across. Birds are everywhere!

In my country kids still learn that there are 5 continents.

Why does the olympic flag have five rings?
"The Olympic flag has a white background, with five interlaced rings in the centre: blue, yellow, black, green and red. This design is symbolic; it represents the five continents of the world, united by Olympism." Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympics (1931)
Back in the day it was taught that there were 5 continents. Things were sometimes taught differently in the past.

This is a very erudite, educational, and well-reasoned thread to read!
"The Birds" isn't known for having one of the better screenplays in Hitchcock, despite its being written by respected novelist Evan Hunter.
But I would expect that Evan had to put some research into the bird lady's detailed and scientific orinthological speech and likely copied that "five continents" reference from whatever research materials he used.
I would note that Hitchcock would often call up the research department of whatever studio he was working at to inundate his writers with books and articles about technical topics taken up, however, briefly, in a Hitchcock film. Psychology, cultures(such as Muslim in "The Man Who Knew Too Much 2"'s Morocco), nuclear science(Torn Curtain), even the history of SONGS.

Maybe she didn't count Anartica because even though it has some birds it doesn't have many like other continents. Then maybe Europe and Asia were combined as they sometimes were which made it EuroAsia which would make 5 being North America, South America, Africa, Australia and EuroAsia.

When I went to school in Europe in the 1980s for a year, they were flabbergasted that I listed 7 continents. They teach Europe, the Americas, Africa, Antarctica, and Oceania (Australia and all of the South Pacific islands). This is also the rationale for the 5 Olympic ringsone for each continent of the world.
I protested that ther are 2 Americas, that 40 miles doesn't count and they said, yes it does, they touch! Then I said how Europe and Asia touch and they said, well, that's different.

Until the late 1960s the standard teaching was that there were five continents: Africa, America, Asia, Australia and Europe. So there is nothing to question about a character saying it in a film made in 1963.
Most of Europe still teaches a six continent system of Africa, Antarctica, America, Asia, Australia/Oceania and Europe. A lot of geographers also use a six continent system of Africa, Antarctica, Australia/Oceania, Eurasia, North America, and South America.
Seven continents is still not universally accepted and it definitely wasn't when the film was made.

I doubt this is the what the old lady meant, but Europe and Asia are technically one continent.

Asia and India are more usually considered to be sub-continents. They aren't always counted separately. That's the answer to your original question without snark. It's more of a political separation to count them separately.

That was an awesome post - thank you for making my day!

LOL I just had a mental image of the orginal poster laying in bed awake at midnight asking; WHY? WHY? Did that old bitch in The Birds say there were 5 continents! LOL