Article+1+-+Mass+Bird+Deaths

2011 was seen as a hope for change; people wished for a turn in the economy, good health, and future happiness. The start of a new year has always been celebrated for thousands of years by cultures all around the world. But this year, something serious happened that turned celebration into speculation and fear.
 * Bye Bye Birdie **

At precisely 11:30pm on the night of New Year’s Eve, close to 5,000 red-winged blackbirds, European starlings, common grackles, and brown-headed cowbirds, fell before midnight.were found strewn across roads and yards in Beebe, Arkansas. Residents of the small town awoke the next morning to find thousands of these dead birds littering a 1.5 square mile area. For still-unexplained reasons, these thousands of birds randomly dropped dead, landing on homes, cars and lawns. “Shortly after I arrived there were still birds falling from the sky,” said Arkansas Game and Fish Commission wildlife officer Robby King, according to an Arkansas Times blog post by Max Brantley.

Cleanup crews were sent in, wearing protective suits, gas masks and rubber gloves as they gathered the carcasses. Scientists began investigating this occurrence, trying to determine whether the cause was bad weather, New Year’s fireworks, or poison that forced the birds out of the sky. There is even the possibility of “simply a disoriented bird that led the flock into the ground.”

Dr. George Badley, state veterinarian for the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission, told ABC News, "Red-winged blackbirds fly in large groups and if they got pulled into a thunderstorm, likely lightening struck them. That would be my best guess.” The only issue causing suspicion was this: there was no report of there even being lightening that night, and the sky seemed pretty calm, according to locals.

“I’ve been to Iraq and back and not seen nothing like this,” Beebe resident Jeff Drennan told local Fox16 News on Sunday, January 2nd. “You know my kids are out here playing and you don’t know, is it safe?” he added. “They’re walking around with chemical suits picking them up with gas masks and everything.”

Officials sent some of the carcasses of the red-winged blackbirds to Badley's Arkansas laboratory. The rest of the birds were taken to laboratories in Georgia and Wisconsin to be tested for toxin, chemical, or poison effects. "Almost every one of them...had multiple internal hemorrhages which would mean that it was trauma, not a disease process. Their stomachs were empty, which would rule out toxicity from eating some kind of poison grain," Badley said to ABC News.

The most obvious explanation was this: fireworks. It was in fact New Year’s Eve, meaning traditional celebration took place, which included the setting off of fireworks. The birds "collided with cars, trees, buildings, and other stationary objects," said ornithologist Karen Rowe of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. These breeds of birds aren’t known to fly at night at all, meaning they had to have been moved from their nesting area for some reason. A number of loud booms would be able to do such a thing. Still, this does not explain what the cause of the next few happenings would be.

As news continued to spread about this mass death, stories of related occurrences began to spring up. On January 3rd, just days after the scores of birds were found dead in Arkansas, it was reported that about 450 blackbirds and starlings littered a small stretch of highway in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, about 300 miles south of Beebe. While some suggested this was a “controlled killing” of the pesky birds, which have been said to be very territorial, wildlife veterinarians suggested that the birds might have flown into a power line that stood along the highway.

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 may 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 to NBC. “Underlying disease, starvation and cold fronts where birds can’t get their body heat up” have caused similar occurrences “in various species over the years,” said State Wildlife Veterinarian Jim LaCour. The U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Center in Wisconsin holds records that show that there have been 16 events in the past 30 years involving blackbirds where at least 1,000 of the birds have died seemingly all at once, making these deaths seemingly common. Even though this is proven to be true, people were now beginning to try to connect these incidents, forming multiple different hypotheses as new and similar stories appeared on the Internet.

Only a day after the Louisiana deaths, on January 5th, a 911 call came in to a local station from residents in Gilbertsville, Kentucky, where several dozen dead birds were found in a woman’s yard. Later on that week, hundreds of dead birds, including grackles, cowbirds, starlings, red-winged blackbirds and robins, were found on the streets in Murray, Kentucky. Biologists have developed several theories on the cause of the deaths, but have been at a loss to determine a solid conclusion. Within the next week, more and more birds would be found dead, the origins even reaching across the Atlantic to European and Asian countries.

Sweden would be the next location of a mass bird death. Shortly before midnight on Tuesday, January 4th, residents found 50 to 100 jackdaws on a street in Falköping southeast of Skövde. County veterinarian Robert ter Horst believes that the birds may have been literally scared to death by fireworks set off on Tuesday night, and were either hit by cars, or ran into stationary objects. “We don't know exactly what happened yet, but we will continue the investigation," said ter Horst.

The same day as the Sweden deaths, hundreds of dead birds were found on highway in Texas. Then, only two days later on the 7th, more than 1,000 dead turtle doves were found in Italy, resulting in unknown causes. After multiple stories continued to show up around the world, including Northern California, Brazil, and Britain, more media buzz erupted. The month of January will go down as a famous time for worldwide talk of mass bird deaths with “no explanation,” according to many theorists.

On January 17th, the people of Yankton, South Dakota reported yet another mass death of about 300 (and growing) birds. Just as carcasses were about to be sent out for testing, Yankton Animal Control Officer Lisa Brasel got a call from officials with the United States Department of Agriculture that solved the mystery.

"They said they had poisoned the birds about 10 miles south of Yankton, and they were surprised they came to Yankton like they did," Brasel told NBC. USDA wildlife biologist Ricky Woods explained that a large group of starlings was causing problems in a Nebraska cattle feedlot, eating the feed and leaving behind waste. The USDA admitted to putting out poison for the birds. "Lethal means are always a last resort," said Woods. “In this situation it's what we had to do."

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">A local from Nebraska told NBC, “I live in Nebraska, and Starlings are killed off fairly regularly by city or state officials. There are too many of these birds around here, they are vastly overpopulated and thus a threat to other bird species, they are not native to this country, they can produce 2 broods per year, and they are extremely territorial and generally end up "evicting" native bird species from their habitats, especially during breeding seasons. I certainly don't have a problem with eliminating a small percentage of these menace birds every couple of years.” This would be the last of the reported mass bird deaths for the month of January.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Was this all the result of a so-called “aflockalypse,” or were natural causes simply the reason behind these mass deaths? Though conspiracy theorists continued to spew multiple theories having to do with the environment, the government, and even Judgment Day, the hundreds of tests run on the dead birds found all over the US proved that the birds could not have all been poisoned, other than the ones found in South Dakota of course. These bird deaths may be the result of natural causes, anywhere from loud booms to inclement weather, but what exactly was the reason behind the mass fish deaths, which happened around the world just about the same time as the nation-and even world-wide bird deaths? A basis has still not been found, causing even more controversy.