1000's of Birds Fall Dead in US

[RosieM]

Good Morning!

Need some help please? Would anyone have any idea what would cause 1,000's of blackbirds to fall dead out of the sky here in Arkansas, US? Here is a copy of one of the articles I'd seen this morning:

From the UK Telegraph:

by Our Foreign Staff 12:38PM GMT 02 Jan 2011

Wildlife officials are trying to determine what caused more than 1,000 black birds to die and fall from the sky over an Arkansas town.

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said it received reports about the dead birds about 11:30 p.m. the previous night. The birds fell over a 1-mile (2-kilometer) area, and an aerial survey indicated that no other dead birds were found outside of that area.

Commission ornithologist Karen Rowe said the birds showed physical trauma, and she speculated that "the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail."

The commission said that New Year's Eve revelers shooting off fireworks in the area could have startled the birds from their roost and caused them to die from stress.

Robby King, a wildlife officer for the agency, collected about 65 dead birds, which will be sent for testing to the state Livestock and Poultry Commission lab and the National Wildlife Health Center lab in Wisconsin

Thank you!

[angelika611]

I read about this on another site some people suggest it could be methane.

[Hobjob]

A couple of years back thousands of swallows died up on the Zambesi as they were massing for the flight back to Europe - that was put down to a sudden cold snap.

I await with interest the scientists opinions!

[diggleken]

Bizarrely, only one species of fish was aso found locally to the American Blackbirds, dead in great numbers.
Aliens, then................
Cheers
Ken

[actionfinch]

Originally Posted by diggleken

Bizarrely, only one species of fish was aso found locally to the American Blackbirds, dead in great numbers.
Aliens, then................
Cheers
Ken

could have fell asleep.... then fell to the ground...

i read with intrest and and cant wait for them to discover the reason

[astarsdad]

This is not an isolated incident. I once read a book written by a Charles Fort, who kept a log on unexplained phenonemenon including hundreds of fish, frogs etc. falling from the sky. I determined that these must have been the result of a vortex over water.
I find it strange that no-one relates this particular event to the swarming process going wrong. It was only one species of bird involved.

[kangarooz]

Well they now think, as reported on news, it was fireworks that caused all their deaths when the loud bangs caused then to panic and fly into each other, or directly into buildings and the ground.

[rossy]

that might be the case for the birds, fireworks,they also so said it may have been tornados, but what about the fish ? possible the fish were feeding at the surface, and the tornados lifted them up, and the birds together , odd though, as it was only one species of bird and fish. rossy.

[rossy]

Originally Posted by rossy

that might be the case for the birds, fireworks,they also so said it may have been tornados, but what about the fish ? possible the fish were feeding at the surface, and the tornados lifted them up, and the birds together , odd though, as it was only one species of bird and fish. rossy.

the story is in todays sun, and it turns out the fish, drummer fish, 100,000, were washed up 2 days later, not at the same time as the birds , so the experts are trying to find out if theres a link. . google the sun for the story rossy.

[angelika611]

I read the birds it happened to were ground roosting birds and the fish are low as well maybe a fault line,if you do some research its happening in more places around america and the world as well.