sciencetriffic

Hundreds more birds fall from the sky – this time in Louisiana

Around 500 dead blackbirds and starlings have been found dead in the US state of Louisiana just days after 3,000 birds fell from the sky in Arkansas.

Biologists have been collecting the bodies of the latest victims and sending samples to laboratories for analysis Photo: AP

By Victoria Ward 7:58PM GMT 04 Jan 2011

The latest discovery was made along a stretch of a main road some 300 miles south of the town where red-winged blackbirds rained out of the darkness onto rooftops and pavements and into fields on New Year’s Eve.

Biologists have been collecting the bodies of the latest victims and sending samples to laboratories for analysis.

The birds found in Beebe, Arkansas, three days earlier, were thought to have died from blood clots and internal injuries that were blamed on a fireworks display.

It is not known whether the Louisiana birds suffered the same fate.

The discovery, along a stretch of road a quarter of a mile long in Pointe Coupee Parish, has only deepened the mystery.

In Arkansas, one theory was that violent thunderstorms might have disoriented the flock or even just one bird that could have led the group in a fatal plunge to the ground.

Beebe residents told how the birds just plunged from the sky, hitting homes, cars, trees and other objects.

The United States Geological Survey has reportedly noted 16 incidents in the past 30 years where more than 1,000 black birds have died at the same time, usually the result of tightly-packed flocks flying into bad weather.

Scientists are still trying to find out what killed over 100,000 fish that washed up on the River Arkansas around 100 miles away just two days before the bird incident.

Nancy Ledbetter, of the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission, said officials were awaiting test results.

She said: "We still don't believe the (fish and bird deaths) are related.”

She also said that she did not believe the incidents in Louisiana and Arkansas were related.