But for residents of Beebe, Arkansas, January 1, meant turning over thousands of bird carcasses that had fallen from the sky. In scenes befitting an apocalyptic thriller, residents woke to find the corpses of at least 1, red-winged blackbirds strewn across their lawns, streets and rooftops.
An aerial survey revealed that all the avian casualties dropped within a one-mile stretch of town. The bird remains were so concentrated that motorists passing through the area struggled to avoid crushing them. According to Graves, we may never know what spooked them, conclusively.
The proximate cause was death by blunt force trauma, but what spooked the birds, that hasn't been absolutely determined," Graves said. You can't go back in time and recreate the event and no one was there recording the event as it happened. The Arkansas Game and Fish statement reports that radar images determined that the first group of approximately 6, to 7, birds began their exodus at PM.
There was another exodus, slightly smaller in number, at PM. The little avian casualties all happened in a one-mile area of Beebe , a town of less than 5, about 40 miles northeast of Little Rock. Officials have rounded up most of the bodies of the blackbirds and starlings, which will begin undergoing tiny autopsies Monday. Workers are going door-to-door to collect the last fallen feathery friends stranded on rooftops and in backyards, CNN reports.
Skip to content Site Navigation The Atlantic. Popular Latest. In Murray County, Kentucky, several hundred grackles, red-winged blackbirds and starlings were found within several blocks near Murray State University last week. Mark Marraccini, spokesman for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, said no toxins were discovered, and it was not known how the birds died.
The Tennessee birds had been dead too long to determine what killed them, said Lt. Melanie Driscoll, director of bird conservation, Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi Flyway, National Audubon Society said that birds like blackbirds and starlings roost in large congregations, of , or more.
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