At a café in Paris, a man curiously listens to his painter friend, Becker, rave about the Bird Man. Becker insists on the existence of a strange man who believes he is a bird and theatrically imitates his motions. He takes his friend to a churchyard across the street and promises that the Bird Man will appear when the weather warms up. Fascinated by this case of harmless insanity, the man starts spending time in the churchyard waiting for the Bird Man to appear, and he does. One day in the spring, the Bird Man hops into the churchyard followed by thousands of flying birds. The Bird Man is tall, gaunt, and dressed in a huge cape that is embroidered with countless feathers from multiple species. All the birds swarm around the Bird Man, as if he were one of them. Becker joins his friend in the churchyard, along with hundreds of other spectators. In the months to come, they continue to attend the Bird Man’s unexpected appearances. Becker often imitates and teases him, and the man is able to feed the Bird Man from the palm of his hand. To elicit a reaction, he even starts cursing and swearing at him harshly, but the Bird Man gives no reaction. The man continues speculating the Bird Man’s harmless appearances without much change, until one day a boy and his father show up at the churchyard. While playing hunter, the boy uses a slingshot and kills one of the bird. Almost instantaneously, the man watches as the Bird Man attacks the young boy and beats his father to a pulp. He hears the Bird Man speak for the first time, and it is to curse in the face of the father. The man shockingly realizes it is the same curses he said to the Bird Man in the past. The police come and take the Bird Man into an asylum. Becker and the man accompany an officer to the home of the Bird Man, which is set up like a huge bird cage. In the months to come, they have no idea what has become of him. On a random day in November, Becker and the man are sitting outside when they suddenly recognize the Bird Man sitting on a bench across from them. He is not dressed in his cape, and they watch as lures a sparrow in with a piece of bread and crushes it in his hand. Unsmiling, the Bird Man walks up to the man and drops the dead sparrow in his hands.