From Yahoo News and i09, “Over a thousand dead black birds rain down on Arkansas town.” i09 has a local video report.
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.” ~news.yahoo.com
This is reminiscent of reports about fish and animals falling from the sky and other seemingly impossible and unlikely happenings. In August of 2000 the BBC reported that it rained fish over a town in Norfolk saying that, ”Reports of falling fish, frogs, tomatoes and even coal date back to the dawning of the millennium.”
A quick search on google turns up dozens of news stories about the phenomenon of dead birds falling from the sky all over the world.
- It’s raining birds on Western Australia
- ‘Raining Dead Birds,’ Resident Says (Phoenix, AZ)
- NJ Residents: ‘It Was Raining’ Dead Birds
- Dead birds rain down on towns half a world apart
Obviously this seems like it’s not an isolated incident:
[January 2007] Three weeks ago thousands of crows, pigeons, wattles and honeyeaters fell out of the sky in Esperance, Western Australia.
Then last week dozens of grackles, sparrows and pigeons dropped dead on two streets in Austin, Texas.
As birds continue to die in Esperance and the town’s dawn chorus remains eerily silent, vets in both countries have been unable to establish a cause of death – despite carrying out a large number of autopsies on the birds.
Wildlife officials from Western Australia’s Department of Environment and Conservation said they were baffled by the “catastrophic event” but emphasised the deaths had nothing to do with a severe storm which recently struck the area, as the birds had started dying before then. District nature conservation coordinator Mike Fitzgerald said: “It’s very substantial. ~dailymail.co.uk Jan 2007