Christy
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NEW ORLEANS — Some 500 dead and dying birds fell onto a Louisiana highway on Monday, just three days after a similar incident in Arkansas.
The events have led to speculation running from poisonings to "End of Days" scenarios, but a key federal agency emphasized that mass bird die-offs are not that rare.
Most of the birds found on Louisiana Highway 1 near Point Coupee were red-winged blackbirds, as was the case in Beebe, Ark., some 360 miles away. The species is one of the most common in the United States, with a population estimated at up to 200 million.
Some of the Louisiana birds will be tested by the National Wildlife Health Center run by the U.S. Geological Survey. But a USGS spokesman told The Baton Rouge Advocate that USGS records showed 16 incidents in the last 30 years where more than 1,000 blackbirds have died all at once.
"These large events do take place," he said. "It's not terribly unusual."
The National Audubon Society agreed that mass bird die-offs are not rare. "Initial findings indicate that these are isolated incidents," Greg Butcher, Audubon's director of bird conservation, said in a statement.
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries also weighed in, saying that necropsies on some birds indicated many "exhibited traumatic injuries." The birds might have flown into nearby power lines, it added.
Two dozen of them had head, neck, beak or back injuries.
About 50 dead birds were near a power line 30 or 40 feet from Louisiana Highway 1. About a quarter-mile away, a second group of 400 or more stretched from the power line and across the highway.
NBC News
Dead birds line a rural stretch of highway in Louisiana on Monday. Dan Cristol, a biology professor and co-founder of the Institute for Integrative Bird Behavior Studies at the College of William & Mary, said the Louisiana birds might have been ill or startled from their roost, then hit the power line.
"They don't hit a power line for no reason," he said.
In Arkansas, preliminary tests showed the blackbirds there, as many as 5,000, died after massive trauma. Experts said the birds were likely spooked by fireworks, lightning or some other loud event and then ran into each other and other objects as they fled at night while roosting.
"The birds suffered from acute physical trauma leading to internal hemorrhage and death," the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said in a statement Monday. "There was no sign of chronic or infectious disease."
The birds were otherwise healthy, according to the statement.
The injuries were primarily in the breast tissue, with blood clotting and bleeding in the body cavities.
Story: No poison found in birds that fell on town
Dr. George Badley, the state's top veterinarian, told NBC News that the birds died in midair, not on impact with the ground.
That evidence, and the fact that the blackbirds fly in close flocks, suggests they suffered some massive midair collision, he added. That lends weight to conclusion that they were startled by something.
'Loud noises'
Fireworks that night might have frightened the birds into such a frenzy that they crashed into homes, cars and each other. Some may have flown straight into the ground.
"It was New Year's Eve night. Everybody and their brother was shooting fireworks," said Beebe Police Chief Wayne Ballew. The city allows fireworks only on New Year's Eve and Independence Day.
The commission noted that "loud noises were reported shortly before the birds began to fall from the sky," adding that blackbirds seldom fly at night.
"The blackbirds were flying at rooftop level instead of treetop level" to avoid explosions above, according to Karen Rowe, an ornithologist with the commission. "Blackbirds have poor eyesight, and they started colliding with things."
Another theory was that severe weather such as lightning accounted for the loud noises but this was discounted because the violent weather had already left the area.
The commission also is trying to determine what caused the deaths of up to 100,000 fish over a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River near a dam in Ozark , 125 miles west of Beebe. The fish were discovered on Dec. 30.
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01-06-2011 03:18 PM
