I hadn't even thought about it like that but ITA. It's not even like something like Watership Down that deals with animals fighting over territory or establishing a warren. It's like just taking the idea of genocide and made it okay because it's birds.

It's quite unfair to the birds, really. I mean, the point of nature is they aren't really stupid enough to want to kill an entire race of birds intentionally--they don't think in those terms. And then giving them these particular human attitudes etc., it's very strange and makes you wonder why people need to tell this story over and over nowadays. Sometimes it seems like it's just an easy way to recognize a villain, like it's the only thing you can get people to automatically understand is very very bad and scary.