Dead birds mystery deepens
A mysterious phenomenon is taking place in the skies over southern America as thousands of birds simply drop from the sky.
On Monday we brought you the story of thousands of dead birds littering the streets of a small town in Arkansas; one theory presented was that New Year’s Eve fireworks were the cause of the problem.
READ MORE: Falling blackbirds baffle Arkansas officials
But the mystery has now deepened after roughly 500 red-winged blackbirds dropped to the ground in Louisiana.
The carcasses of the birds were reportedly found littering a 400 metre stretch of road in Pointe Coupee, Louisiana.
Louisiana and Arkansas share a border, and the two towns in which the incidents occurred are roughly 500 km apart.
A woman in Kentucky, north-east of Arkansas, claims she also found hundreds of dead birds in her garden.
Scientists have struggled to explain how so many birds, covering such a large area, could all have met the same fate.
Vicious storms in the area over recent days are possibly to blame, with hail, lightning and tornadoes being reported in some areas.
The birds may also have flown into objects after altering their flight paths due to New Year’s Eve fireworks.
The Associated Press reports that internal injuries were found in some of the birds tested in Beebe, Arkansas.
Yesterday, around 100,000 fish were also found dead 200km north-west of Beebe, although scientists do not believe the two incidents are related.
