A Glitch in the Matrix?

Yesterday before I headed out to the grocery store, I opened the front door to see how cold it was outside.

The yard was full of birds - at least seven of them - and I expected them to all fly off when the door opened.

But instead, they froze.

All of them. The robin staring right at me. The little woodpecker with his head cocked to the right. The blue jay in mid effort to attack a worm. They stood frozen, as if in a picture.

It was just seconds, but long enough for me to stare back and think, "What is going on here? Why aren't they moving?"

They should not have stayed still that long. Birds move around so much they are notoriously difficult to photograph. They certainly don't freeze.

They did not fly away until I moved to close the door. At that point, it was as if they had all been released from a spell - and each bird flew off in the same instance. 

They headed for the trees like they should have done when I first opened the door.

Sometimes I see videos about "glitches in the matrix" online. They usually are something I can explain by say, optical illusion. Or a bad perspective.

I cannot explain this "freezing of the birds" when I opened the door. It was so odd that it made me shiver. "How weird," I thought as I shut the door.