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‘Fright’ killed thousands of birds in Arkansas

Fright is the likely cause of death of thousands of birds which dropped onto a small town in Arkansas, officials claimed.

As many as 5,000 birds began falling over the small town of Beebe shortly before midnight on New Year’s Eve.

“We right now are pretty confident that the trauma is what caused the die-off,” said state veterinarian George Badley.

A local resident reported hearing about 20 loud booms on Saturday night – which could have been fireworks or a cannon to get rid of nuisance birds – and saw a huge flock of frantic birds when he went outside.

“He could hear the blackbirds fluttering around – he could hear their wings and he could hear them hitting into things,” Mr Badley told AFP.

Blackbirds have poor night vision and they were likely to have been killed because they banged into houses, trees and each other in their fright.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .