More than 500 blackbirds and starlings were discovered in a flurry of dead birds in Louisiana similar to the one in Arkansas several days ago. Image from Wikimedia Commons.
Thousands of dead birds dropped from the sky in Arkansas on New Year’s, and a similar incident involving dead birds in Louisiana followed days later. Fewer blackbirds dropped from the sky in Louisiana, but similar incidents taking place so soon after one another is disturbing. Further testing will determine the cause.
Dead birds in Louisiana follow Arkansas incident
Reports are emerging of massive numbers of dead birds falling out of Louisiana skies. The incident took place just days after the small town of Beebe, Ark., saw several thousand blackbirds drop out of the sky on New Year’s Eve. A stretch of highway in northern Louisiana in Pointe Coupee Parish near Labarre, La., had more than 500 blackbirds, starlings and sparrows rain from the sky, according to CNN. Some birds survived the initial plunge and died later. The rain of birds occurred about 300 miles south of Beebe, Ark., where the initial incident of birds falling from the sky and dying took place. The birds found in Louisiana are being sent to laboratories for testing to see whether the incidents have anything in common.
Trauma brought down birds in Arkansas
The necropsy, or autopsy, of the dead birds from Arkansas indicates that the birds likely died from trauma suffered that caused the birds to fall from the sky. A spokesman for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said the birds all had suffered some sort of physical trauma to the breast tissue. Most specimens had hemorrhaged and were bleeding internally. An infectious disease did not appear likely.
Raining birds
A cold weather and storm front is moving through that part of the country, and weather events such as hail or lightning could easily kill large flocks of birds. Fireworks could also be a likely culprit, as loud noises are known to be harmful to birds in flight, but fireworks seem an unlikely explanation in the second event.
I'm thinking that the New Madrid fault line is more likely an explanation. The poor birds probably were spooked by something – fireworks or perhaps a coming quake – and set out to fly into the night. When they went to land they probably slammed into the ground because the earth magnetism could have experienced a change that threw their navigation out of whack.