Bird Falls: Mysterious Deaths Of Birds En Masse

[CygnusRex]

Mass starling suicide baffles experts

Wildlife experts in the German city of Stuttgart are baffled after a flock of starlings made a mass suicide attempt leaving dozens of birds dead.

Pedestrians watched as hundreds of birds flew over the city before suddenly nose-diving to the ground from a height of 65 feet.

Bird expert Guenther Schleussner, from the Wilhelma Zoological and Botanical Gardens in Stuttgart, said the scenes were like something from a horror film.

"I've never seen anything like it in my life," he added.

Around 100 dead and injured birds covered the busy Steinhalden Street. Residents out for a Sunday stroll reporting a loud "thud" as the flock of kamikaze starlings hit the pavement.

The ornithologist added: "It's unbelievable, I'm stunned. This kind of behaviour in birds is very, very unusual."

Schleussner said the incident could have been down to a sudden squall or simply a "freak accident".


Story filed: 11:29 Monday 3rd November 2003

Original story

 

[Twin_Star]

12 monkeys, anyone?

mods - merge/ delete if i've overlooked this tidbit...

news.com.au/story/0,23599,21035741-2,00.html
Link is dead. Here's the full text, salvaged from the Wayback Machine ...

Birds fall from sky over town
January 10, 2007 01:00am
Article from: The Australian

THOUSANDS of birds have fallen from the skies over Esperance and no one knows why.

Is it an illness, toxins or a natural phenomenon? A string of autopsies in Perth have shed no light on the mystery.

All the residents of flood-devastated Esperance know is that their "dawn chorus" of singing birds is missing.

The main casualties are wattle birds, yellow-throated miners, new holland honeyeaters and singing honeyeaters, although some dead crows, hawks and pigeons have also been found.

Wildlife officers are baffled by the "catastrophic" event, which the Department of Environment and Conservation said began well before last week's freak storm.

On Monday, Esperance, 725km southeast of Perth, was declared a natural disaster zone.

District nature conservation co-ordinator Mike Fitzgerald said the first reports of birds dropping dead in people's yards came in three weeks ago. More than 500 deaths had since been notified. But the calls stopped suddenly last week, reportedly because no birds were left.

"It's very substantial. We estimate several thousand birds are dead, although we don't have a clear number because of the large areas of bushland," Mr Fitzgerald said.

Birds Australia, the nation's main bird conservation group, said it had not heard of a similar occurrence. "Not on that scale, and all at the same time, and also the fact that it's several different species," chief executive Graeme Hamilton said. "You'd have to call that a most unusual event and one that we'd all have to be concerned about."

He expected birds would return to the area once the problem - natural or man-made phenomenon - was fixed but said it was vital the cause was identified.

The Department of Agriculture and Food, which conducted the autopsies, has almost ruled out an infectious process.

Acting chief veterinary officer Fiona Sunderman said toxins were the most likely cause but the deaths could be due to anything from toxic algae to chemicals and pesticides.

Dr Sunderman said there were no leads yet on which of potentially hundreds of toxins might be responsible. Some birds were seen convulsing as they died.

Michelle Crisp was one of the first to contact the DEC after finding dozens of dead birds on her property one morning.

She told The Australian she normally had hundreds of birds in her yard, but that she and a neighbour counted 80 dead birds in one day.

"It went to the point where we had nothing, not a bird," she said.

"It was like a moonscape, just horrible. But the frightening thing for us, we didn't find any more birds after that. We literally didn't have any birds left to die."

SALVAGED FROM THE WAYBACK MACHINE:
https://web.archive.org/web/20070122044547/https://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21035741-2,00.html

 

[akaWiintermoon]

All the residents of *flood-devastated Esperance know is that their "dawn chorus" of singing birds is missing.

Acting chief veterinary officer Fiona Sunderman said **toxins were the most likely cause but the deaths could be due to anything from toxic algae to chemicals and pesticides.

*Presumibly none of the birds died from starvation, their main source of food being now underwater?

**Yes, if they were eating bugs/fish from the now flooded areas who knows what was previously dumped in the water? Also, don't underestimate the algae. When I lived in Portsmouth a place called Baffins Ponds was badly affected by poisonous algae. IIRC a lot of the birds that didn't die had to be put down. There were normally Canadian Geese, Coots and Swans amongst other species there but for a while there were none.


EDIT: opps, I pressed 'Edit' instead of 'Quote.'

 

[Dingo667]

Whats really creepy here is that when I read this I actually thought that this is something genuinely weird for the first time [in the news]. So I couldn't wait to get to this forum and see what people come up with...

...

...not much by the look of it. This is relly strange you know. I'd like to hear more about it.

:?

 

[rjmrjmrjm]

This is genuinely weird, It wouldn't suprise me if this story becomes damnned. It seems a prime candidate, very fortean.

 

[QuaziWashboard]

Well the obvious suggestion would be that they flew through something that killed them. Anyone got any ideas or theories?

 

[Cyclops]

Well the obvious suggestion would be that they flew through something that killed them. Anyone got any ideas or theories?

Hmmm...has anybody else read Stephen King's short story "The Jaunt"?

 

[QuaziWashboard]

Well the obvious suggestion would be that they flew through something that killed them. Anyone got any ideas or theories?

Hmmm...has anybody else read Stephen King's short story "The Jaunt"?

I haven't, what's the general gist of it?

 

[Cyclops]

A scientist develops a method of teleportation; you have to go through one portal and come out of another at your destination. The trouble is, although the time it takes to travel from one to the other seems instantaneous to onlookers, to the concious mind it seems to take forever; the mice that it's tested on appear at the other end, totter a few steps, look round in bewilderment, keel over and die. People have to be anaesthetised before they travel, except one young lad avoids the anaesthetic out of curiosity and appears at the destination as a white haired gibbering insane wreck.

It was your suggestion that "they flew through something that killed them" that got the wheels turning. I'm not for one minute suggesting that they flew en masse through a teleportation portal somewhere (I think it'll be a few years before British Airways becomes that efficient ), but I just had this image of a flock of birds flying into one end and appearing at the other disoriented, aged and sick...

 

[wembley8]

Oh, do be serious :;

"The birds are dying around sprinklers, water tanks, bird baths ... it seems as a result of them being ill. They're seeking water and they're dying around those water points,'' DEC district nature
conservation co-ordinator Mike Fitzgerald said.

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0 ... 61,00.html

Birds are extremely vulnerable to some toxins that are harmles to people - especially PTFE -

"In 1997 scientists in England reported that 80 to 100 wild birds were found dead in a four-hour time span approximately 700 feet from an industrial plant in western England that coated sheet metal with non-stick paint containing PTFE. On the afternoon of the bird deaths, the plant had some problems that resulted in oven temperatures raised up to 880 degF (470 degC) to improve the coating of the sheet metal with the PTFE-containing paint. "

http://www.ewg.org/reports/toxicteflon/ ... dbirds.php

The timescale is interesting - 5,000 bird deaths from Mid-December to the present time. it's not a sudden thing.

But it might be a natural toxin -

“Because we had a long dry winter the Esperance wetlands that surround the town, some have been slightly eutrophic, high in algal growths and bacteria,'' Mr Fitzgerald said.

"It’s possible the toxin has arisen from the eutrophic wetlands and somehow entered the birds’ food chain.”

http://origin.www.news.com.au/perthnow/ ... 61,00.html

The story says they are PMing a wattle bird evebn as I write, so the answer may appear soon.

Expect to see lots of mass deaths from red tide and similar lethal algal blooms as global warming takes hold.

 

[Cyclops]

Well, as I said, I wasn't suggesting for one moment that some strange science fiction portal was the reason for the deaths - it was just the way my imagination turned for a moment...

I think you're probably right. My guess would be either industrial pollutants or an unusual concentration of some natural toxin caused by climate anomalies.

 

[wembley8]

More dead birds found in WA January 17, 2007 01:55pm

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,21073958-1245,00.html?from=public_rss

ANOTHER 200 dead birds have been found in WA, taking the total number to die in mysterious circumstances in the state to 4000.

Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) nature protection branch acting manager Paul Connolly said today his department had received a new report of at least 200 dead swallows in Narembeen, about 240km east of Perth and 380km from Esperance.

He said the swallows apparently died earlier this month during large storms that passed through the wheatbelt region.

Investigations into the mysterious death of thousands of birds in have been widened, with toxins now considered a possible cause.

Autopsies have ruled out viral and bacteriological causes.

DEC is now waiting for autopsy results to determine whether pesticides or toxins caused the deaths.

DEC is running the tests after about 4000 birds were found dead around Esperance, on the state's south coast.

The birds, mostly yellow-throated miners, wattle birds, new holland honey eaters silvereyes, plus some seagulls and pigeons, were found dead near water sources such as sprinklers and water tanks.

The first finds were reported in early December.

"We don't know if this latest event is linked to the Esperance bird deaths," Mr Connolly said today.

"We are asking the public to report any clusters of dead birds to their local DEC office immediately so we can collect a sample for testing."

 

[rynner2]

Birds fell out of the sky as a whole town was poisoned by lead dust
By Kathy Marks in Sydney
Published: 05 April 2007

A strange silence was the first clue that something was wrong. The dawn chorus that usually woke residents of the picturesque coastal town of Esperance, in Western Australia, had stopped. Then birds began falling out of the sky.

Local people were alarmed when they came across dead lorikeets, wattlebirds, honeyeaters and silvereyes in their parks and back yards. Health officials told them not to worry. But they tested their rainwater tanks, the main source of drinking water, and found dangerously high levels of lead or nickel in more than a third.

The authorities still insisted there was no cause for concern. Then they tested the seabed at the Esperance port, through which nickel and lead carbonate mined inland are shipped to Asia. Some samples contained 130 times the recommended health levels of the two metals. It was also established that 4,000 birds had died of lead poisoning.

There was lead in the air, lead in the drinking water, and lead in the sea. And when health officials finally admitted that there might cause for concern and began testing the population, they found lead in their blood.

Out of 900 people tested, 12 - including two young children - had higher levels than those deemed acceptable by the World Health Organisation. Lead is a particular hazard for small children and pregnant women.

The West Australian government has now ordered an inquiry. The port authority has halted exports of lead carbonate, and the mine, Magellan Metals, has suspended operations. Residents have been warned not to drink water from their tanks and to avoid eating fish, shellfish or crustaceans caught locally.

But residents fear that their long-term health has been damaged and they are furious with local authorities for playing down the risks. It was December when the birds began to die. Only in the past fortnight has the situation been treated with due seriousness.

Meanwhile, it has emerg-ed that the port authority did not report two "spikes" in lead dust emission levels, recorded in February and May last year.

Graham Jacobs, a GP and local politician, said: "I think it is appalling. Lead is a serious heavy metal pollutant, and it has enormous implications for the vulnerable people, particularly, in our community."

Dr Jacobs said earlier official advice that the lead levels that killed the birds did not pose a threat to humans had been premature.

"It's a bit like me saying my patient is not having a heart attack, without looking at the blood test or the ECG (electrocardiogram)," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

More than 100,000 tons of lead carbonate - by far the most toxic form of lead, if inhaled or ingested - have been shipped through the port over the past 18 months. The birds were poisoned by lead dust from the carbonate.

The high levels of nickel and lead at the port were found in rocks and sediment next to the loading wharf, and the state's director of environmental protection, Robert Atkins, said they were, "most likely to have arisen from drainage off the port wharf area and the loading facility".

The mining company has suggested that the lead be exported in sealed containers, or turned into pellets. Previously it was transported in a granulated form. But Esperance residents want the shipments halted completely. There is speculation that lead dust escaped during loading and was blown over the town where it settled on roofs and was then washed into rainwater tanks.

Jim McGinty, the state health minister, called the situation in Esperance, "very worrying from a public health perspective".

Jim Dodds, a health department spokesman, told ABC that unsafe lead levels in blood had not been found across the entire population, or even throughout families, so the cause was not clear.

http://news.independent.co.uk/environme ... 422658.ece

 

[rynner2]

Mystery as dead birds fall from the sky over Western Australia
Anne Barrowclough, South-East Asia Editor

Dead birds are falling from the sky in Australia for the second time in seven months, raising fears of a possible public health threat.

At least 200 seagulls have been found dead in Perth's popular beachside suburbs of Woodman Point and Henderson this week, baffling local authorities.

Post-mortem examinations have failed to determine the cause of the birds' deaths. Last December 5,000 birds died in the coastal town of Esperance, 500 km south of Perth, after being poisoned by lead carbonate blowing through the town as it was being exported through Esperance Port.

The latest incident of dropping birds has led to a major investigation of local industries but government officials admit they are at a loss to know what is killing the gulls. A Department of Health spokesman admitted they could not rule out a risk to public health until the cause of the birds' deaths had been established.

When the Esperance birds began dying, tests showed that local children and adults had potentially dangerous levels of lead in their blood. A local company, Magellan Metals, escaped prosecution over the way it handled the transportation of lead through the town, but fears remain over the potential threat to humans.

The Department of Environment and Conservation (DoEC) believes the latest deaths may have been caused by a chemical or pollutant. The birds were found on Monday and Tuesday near water outfall pipes at Woodman Point, south of Fremantle and at nearby Henderson which has a large boat-building industry. Water and sediment samples have been taken from the area for testing.

Kevin Morrison, from the DoEC, said the birds appeared to die a quick and painless death.

"The birds, when they are showing signs of having been poisoned become a bit wobbly on their feet, they sit down and within 10 to 15 minutes they're dead," he told the Australian Broadcasting Coproration. He said it was particularly puzzling that the deaths were confined to seagulls. In Esperance, wattle birds, yellow throated miners and honey-eaters died.

Although many of the birds were found near the outflow pipes, Mr Morrison said the birds may already have ingested something toxic at a rubbish or landfall site before going there for water as they died.

The beach at Woodman Point, a popular sailing and fishing area, has been closed as a precaution until further notice. Officials do not expect the test results on the birds for a week.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 381934.ece

 

[rynner2]

Shortly after posting the above, I walked into town to catch a bus, and saw a dead seagull (a mature herring gull) on the footpath. It was practically under the hedge, which makes it less likely to be road-kill, although I suppose that some passer-by may have kicked it into that position.

Odd, anyway. It's still there today.

 

[EnolaGaia]

Bird Fall

More than 1,000 dead birds fall from sky in Ark.

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

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said Saturday that it began receiving reports about the dead birds about 11:30 p.m. the previous night. The birds fell over a 1-mile area of Beebe, 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 Madison, Wis.

Rowe said that similar events have occurred elsewhere and that test results "usually were inconclusive." She said she doubted the birds were poisoned.

SOURCE: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110102/ap_ ... s_arkansas

 

[liveinabin]

Shortly after posting the above, I walked into town to catch a bus, and saw a dead seagull (a mature herring gull) on the footpath. It was practically under the hedge, which makes it less likely to be road-kill, although I suppose that some passer-by may have kicked it into that position.

Odd, anyway. It's still there today.

I found a dead seagull outside our backdoor the the other day. I never questioned why it was there.

 

[Mythopoeika]

The Beeb provides a video:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12106315

 

[MrGoat]

Seems to me that this is not the first time that flocks of birds have fallen dead in flight. Am I dreaming, or am I "crazy," or does anyone else recall such stories? I tried to search the archives, but didn't come up with anything based on the terms I was using.

What I remember, is that large numbers of birds fell dead apparently in mid-flight. Autopsies revealed blunt trauma to the bodies/organs. I recall the birds as being something like starlings, or birds of that size. I seem to remember this having happened in Britain somewhere.

I presume that I either read about them here in the weird news, on the message boards, or in my volume of Fort's collected works. Does anyone else remember such a thing?

 

[gyrtrash]

Re: Bird Fall

More than 1,000 dead birds fall from sky in Ark.

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

SOURCE: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110102/ap_ ... s_arkansas

Another link:-

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nati ... 7615.story


... and 120 miles away, a river of dead fish...

OZARK, Ark. (AP) — An Arkansas Game and Fish Commission spokesman says dead drum fish now cover a 20-mile section of the Arkansas River near Ozark.

Seven teams from the state agency visited the affected portion of the river Friday. Commission spokesman Keith Stephens says an official estimate of how many fish have died is expected on Monday, but he tells the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that the number is likely in the hundreds of thousands.

Source:-
http://www.wreg.com/lifestyle/sns-ap-ar ... 9721.story



What's going on in Arkansas?!

 

[Iggore]

Watch out Louisiana.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110104/sc ... 0104181823

Okay, what the f.

 

[gyrtrash]

And Kentucky! :shock:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajIXYofBhGk

 

[Spookdaddy]

Seems to me that this is not the first time that flocks of birds have fallen dead in flight. Am I dreaming, or am I "crazy," or does anyone else recall such stories?...

There was a story concerning a fall of dead starlings in the UK sometime early last year. Can't remember any details - but I do remember a picture of an RSPCA officer kneeling in front of rows of the poor buggers.

 

[gyrtrash]

There was a story concerning a fall of dead starlings in the UK sometime early last year. Can't remember any details - but I do remember a picture of an RSPCA officer kneeling in front of rows of the poor buggers.

Last March, in Somerset.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... arden.html

 

[Spookdaddy]

A possible clue to some of the American falls here:

A line of fast-moving storms and possible tornadoes stretching from the Gulf Coast states to Illinois left at least six people dead Friday and caused widespread damage to homes and businesses, as forecasters warned of more potentially severe weather.

According to this article:

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said Saturday that it began receiving reports about the dead birds about 11:30 p.m. the previous night.

 

[bathory13]

Now in Sweden too:

http://www.thelocal.se/31262/20110105/

 

[Analogue Boy]

Necrospies performed on monday on the birds in Arkansas showed the birds suffered internal injuries that formed blood clots leading to their deaths, The Associated press reported.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/112843019.html

That doesn't sound like fireworks caused that. Also, the mass poisoning thing doesn't hold true. Some would be more susceptible than others so would perish earlier making a spontaneous mass fall less probable.

Plus, preliminary reports released Monday by the Livestock and Poultry Commission Veterinary Diagnostic Lab show blood clots and internal bleeding in many of the birds, indicating that trauma had occurred before the fall. "These are not just dead birds lying on the ground," Inkley said. "These are damaged, dead birds lying on the ground."

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/201 ... -offs.html

Maybe it's microwave pulses again.

II. Microwave exposure induces oxidative damage leading to depletion of the body's natural production and store of a number of antioxidative enzymes and antioxidants like super oxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, glutathione, CoQ10, and melatonin (Wei 1999, Campanella et al 2003, Gautier & Santini 2003, Ilhan et al 2004, Ozquner et al 2005, Regoli et al 2005, Zwirska-Korczala et al 2005, Goldberg G. 2006, Jelenkovi et al 2006, Kalns et al 2006, Ozquner et al 2006,Yurekli et al 2006, Carlo 2007). When the body becomes depleted in antioxidants, what are known as free radicals - aka reactive oxygen species (ROS) - will wreck havoc on the body's cellular systems (e.g. cell wall, mitochondria, DNA) causing oxidative damage which can thus lead to premature aging, a weakened immune system, and sticky blood, among other serious problems. With a depressed level of antioxidants in the blood, for example, not only low-density lipoproteins (LDL) will bind with free radicals (oxidants) leading to the guey stuff that forms plaque on arterial walls, but evidence is showing that this can also happen with the high density lipoproteins (HDL) as well (Hurtado, et al 1996). This leads to arteriosclerosis and more viscous blood which in turn can cause blood clots leading to strokes and heart attacks.

 

[coaly]

And there was me thinking this is a natural occurance which happens every so many years. I think the last reported massive one was in the UK in 2001.

 

[ramonmercado]

Either Chinese Lanterns or UFOs are responsible.

 

[gyrtrash]

Necrospies performed on monday on the birds in Arkansas showed the birds suffered internal injuries that formed blood clots leading to their deaths, The Associated press reported.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/112843019.html

Also from that article:-

?"... a search of USGS records shows there have been 16 events in the past 30 years involving blackbirds where at least 1,000 of the birds have died seemingly at once.
"These events do take place", he said. "It's not terribly unusual".