Pisthetairos is at first an ordinary man with whom the audience can sympathize in his quest for a utopia. However, Cloudcuckooland transforms from an egalitarian state to a dictatorship as Pisthetairos acquires a fancy for tyranny.

After Pisthetairos and Euelpides are given feathers and wings by the birds, Pisthetairos quickly takes over the new city as a demagogue and tyrant.

Pisthetairos has the birds build an enormous wall (600 feet high), and expels every annoying visitor who arrives in the city. Among the various visitors are a poet, singing ancient praises of the newly created city, a lawyer selling all the latest legal documents, and the goddess Iris who flies through the city not knowing that the walls are supposed to stop her. Prometheus also arrives to inform Pisthetairos that the city has become the focus of humanity's worship and sacrifices, which are no longer being received by the gods. A delegation from the gods, led by Poseidon and Heracles, comes to negotiate for the sacrifices, and they eventually allow Pisthetairos to marry Zeus' maid Basileia, who is the true force behind Zeus' control of Heaven. The play ends as Pisthetairos realizes he is the new ruler of the gods, and the audience is called upon to celebrate the new tyrant of the universe.

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