{"id":7397,"date":"2014-07-23T10:00:06","date_gmt":"2014-07-23T17:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/?p=7397"},"modified":"2026-03-19T14:03:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T21:03:27","slug":"aflockalypse-solved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/aflockalypse-solved\/","title":{"rendered":"Aflockalypse Solved"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blackbird Mass Deaths: New Years\u00a02010 to 2014 – Solved<\/strong><\/p>\n

(c) David Dilworth<\/p>\n

\u201cShortly before midnight on New Year’s Eve (2010-2011) between 3,000 and 5,000 red-winged blackbirds fell from the sky in Beebe (Arkansas). Most were dead on the ground but some were living but dazed<\/strong>.<\/a>\u201d – Wikipedia<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Red-winged

Red-winged Blackbird<\/p><\/div>\n

What could cause rapid death of hundreds of birds and leave no physical trace and no hint of any disease – several years in a row ?<\/p>\n

There are many conjectures (lightning, disease, pollution, stress, cars) but no solution even comes close to fitting all the facts.<\/p>\n

Lets start with agreed upon facts.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. It is widely agreed that the birds were startled into flight<\/strong> by fireworks exploding at New Year\u2019s Eve celebrations. This identical phenomena occurred several New Years in a row.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    2.\u00a0The temperature that night was well below freezing; at nearby Little Rock Air Force Base it went down to 24 degrees Fahrenheit.<\/a><\/p>\n

    3. The birds were examined and found to have died of “blunt force trauma” –\u00a0they suffered from “internal bleeding and blood clots in the body cavity<\/strong>.” Autopsy ruled out chemicals\/poisons, infectious disease and gunshots.<\/p>\n

    4. What is rarely reported is that mass die offs of animals is not a rare occurrence. According to the U.S. Geological Service, there are more than 150 reports of mass animal die offs in the United States every year “and that’s probably a dramatic undercount.”<\/a><\/p>\n

    David\u2019s Hypothesis: <\/strong><\/p>\n

    Birds startled into flight by fireworks of New Year\u2019s Eve celebrations and then flying into sub-freezing air – could have frozen to death while flying, or could have frozen enough to lose their ability to maintain or control their flying.<\/p>\n

    Freezing would cause them to fall a hundred feet or more, hitting the ground hard and giving them what was indeed death by blunt force trauma<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    This hypothesis is consistent with all reported\u00a0facts<\/strong> including —<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Other bird species\u00a0suffered the same fate at the same time including Starlings and Grackles.<\/li>\n
    2. Some birds found on the ground were dazed but alive.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Aflockalypse Mystery Solved<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

      # # #<\/p>\n

      References:<\/strong><\/p>\n

      Wikipedia article: 2010\u201311 midwinter animal mass death events<\/a><\/p>\n

      http:\/\/www.almanac.com\/weather\/history\/AR\/Beebe\/2010-01-01<\/a><\/p>\n

      http:\/\/www.timeanddate.com\/weather\/usa\/little-rock\/historic?month=1&year=2010<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Blackbird Mass Deaths: New Years\u00a02010 to 2014 – Solved (c) David Dilworth \u201cShortly before midnight on New Year’s Eve (2010-2011) between 3,000 and 5,000 red-winged blackbirds fell from the sky in Beebe (Arkansas). Most were dead on the ground but … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[27,41,28,23,42,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-amazing","category-clever","category-fascinating","category-fun","category-physics","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7397"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9619,"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7397\/revisions\/9619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daviddilworth.com\/pol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}