It has become one of the strangest stories to come out of the New Year and one of the most puzzling for scientists and local officials: Just what caused 5,000 birds to fall from the sky just before midnight New Year's Eve in Beebe, Arkansas?
As news of the story spread across the globe, so did speculation about what caused the Hitchcockian scene. And as officials wait for the official necropsy (animal autopsy) report, we're taking a look at some of the theories that officials and scientists have suggested.
Weather-related
Karen Rowe, an ornithologist for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said the incident is not that unusual and is often caused by a lightning strike or high-altitude hail. This theory could hold in this case, she said, especially because a strong storm system moved through the state earlier Friday.
Keith Stephens, a spokesman for the commission, told Reuters that storm weather, including hail or lightning, could be the culprit, but so far, he had yet to see any sign of injury on birds that were collected.
Rowe told Live Science that events like this have happened across the globe, and generally, weather is to blame. She said birds have been swept up and moved when caught up in hurricanes, wind can force them into a large object like a cliff, or large groups of birds can clash and crash in heavy fog, killing them.
Fireworks
On CNN's "American Morning," Stephens told Kiran Chetry and Jim Acosta that in addition to weather, local New Year's Eve celebrations may be to blame.
"We're leaning towards maybe a stress event," he said.
Stephens said revelers, "possibly shooting some fireworks while the birds were roosting," could have scared them, causing trauma.
"That could have been what caused their deaths," he said.
But birds don't fall out of the sky whenever there are fireworks, so what makes this event different? Stephens said that in rural areas, birds can be more concentrated. And if fireworks were set off near them in a roosting area while they were sleeping, such a trauma could have killed them.
Poisoning or disease
Rowe said it wasn't likely that poisoning or another illness could be to blame.
“Since it only involved a flock of blackbirds and only involved them falling out of the sky it is unlikely they were poisoned, but a necropsy is the only way to determine if the birds died from trauma or toxin,” she said in a commission press release.
Officials have also said that because the situation was isolated, and because other groups of the birds in separate areas were not killed, they don't suspect the birds were poisoned.
For reasons similar to why they don't suspect poisoning, officials told Fox 16 in Arkansas that the bird deaths probably aren't related to any kind of disease.
Air toxins
Air tests by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality came back clean for any toxin, KTHV reports.
well, this is odd, but I kind of enjoyed watching this :D, burn them all down to the ground mwuahahahhahaahahahah :]
All right folks!! THE END IS NEAR!!! LET`S CELEBRATE!!!
yeah!!! 😀 2012 for the win!
Cheney did it.
i agree with ernben kill them all!!!!!!
nobody gives a s88t about bigfoot
someone keeps posting as me, acting like a child that needs beaten.
so fxxk him!!!
ALL BLACK BIRDS SHOULD DIE
I INTENTIONALLY POISON FIELDS TO KILL THESE FLYING RATS!!! IF IT WINDS UP KILLING FISH, I AM SORRY. BUT ALL CARP (SCAVENGERS OF THE DEAD) MUST DIE ALONG WITH THEM. I AM SATAN, AND I AM WARNING YOU TO CHANGE YOU WAYS, BOW DOWN AND WORSHIP THE ONE TRUE MASTER OF YOU ANUS!!!!!!
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very dark indeed O__________o, also are you racist? 😛
racist coffee man, racist coffee
Maybe it's Armegeddon. Arkansas would be a good place to start, or Idaho (Redneck-Central).
End is near!! 2012.. Some signs of GOD
you will die birds once i f*** you birds (including mexican ones_
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where are all these coming from?!!?
I'm pretty sure it was gravity that caused them to fall from the sky.
Brilliant!
bingo...
that wasn't me
Arkansas Nuclear One sits directly between the birds and the fish!!!! The dead birds flew due east of the nuclear plant to Beebe after sunset. The dead fish floated directly up the Arkansas River to Ozark. SOMETHING HAPPENED at the plant on New Year's Eve – it's SO obvious!!