Up To 5,000 Dead Birds Fall On Small Arkansas Town On New Years Eve (Updated)

Video

by Matt Schneider | 3:01 pm, January 2nd, 2011

» 37 comments

Over 1,000 lifeless birds tragically fell from the sky in Beebe, Arkansas on New Year’s Eve. In an interview with AP, an expert with the state’s Livestock and Poultry Commission suggested “the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail.” The Commission offered another sad possibility, that New Year’s Eve fireworks could have gone off near the birds and startled them so severely, that they died from stress.

The Hitchcock-like scene left many in the local town bewildered and saddened that the ball was not the only thing to drop from the sky on New Year’s Eve.

Update:

(CNN) — Arkansas game officials hope testing scheduled to begin Monday will solve the mystery of why up to 5,000 blackbirds fell from the sky just before midnight New Year’s Eve.

The birds — most of which were dead — were found within a one-mile area of Beebe, about 40 miles northeast of Little Rock, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said. The blackbirds fell over about a one-mile area, the commission said in a statement.

As of Saturday, between 4,000 and 5,000 blackbirds had been found dead, said Keith Stephens with the commission.

Watch the unfortunate result in the clip from local affiliate KATV below:

Arkansas, Bebe, Birds, CNN, This Exists

Atticus Draco

‘
The Commission offered another sad possibility, that New Year’s Eve fireworks could have went off near the birds and startled them so severely, that they died from stress.

That’s modern liberal thinking right there!

lol,, what a BS explanation!
libra blue

I could not bring myself to watch the video. No matter how these poor birds died it is horribly sad news! I just hope they didn’t suffer.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Todd-Everett/652214829 Todd Everett

“could have went off”?
murphy0071

Atticus Draco said:
‘
The Commission offered another sad possibility, that New Year’s Eve fireworks could have went off near the birds and startled them so severely, that they died from stress.

That’s modern liberal thinking right there!

lol,, what a BS explanation!

The Commission and not a liberal gave this as a possible reason, so how could this be “modern liberal thinking?” I would suggest given the shape of the remains this explanation was merely a “shot in the dark” as are most “if could have been” statements. You right wing bigots seem to find a reason to blame liberals for everything. Have a nice 2011 engulfed in your various delusions.
Atticus Draco

murphy0071 said:
The Commission and not a liberal gave this as a possible reason, so how could this be “modern liberal thinking?” I would suggest given the shape of the remains this explanation was merely a “shot in the dark” as are most “if could have been” statements. You right wing bigots seem to find a reason to blame liberals for everything. Have a nice 2011 engulfed in your various delusions.

lol,, you sound very modern liberal to me
good luck with that!
felixw

Blame Bush!
berserk

“fireworks could have went off near the birds and startled them”

Mediaite, your writers need to pass some basic grammar test before they start blogging.
BatBoy

libra blue said:
I could not bring myself to watch the video. No matter how these poor birds died it is horribly sad news! I just hope they didn’t suffer.

You are kidding us….Right?
Harry Flashman

I know it’s early, but this statement could well be the stupidest of the year so far:

“New Year’s Eve fireworks could have went off near the birds and startled them so severely, that they died from stress.”

Yeah, I hate it when that happens. Every year, year in, year out on the Fourth of July and New Year’s Eve thousands and thousands of birds fall out of the sky, plummeting to their deaths because of fireworks displays across the country.

Sweet smokin’ Moses where do they get the imbeciles, er, experts who make idiotic statements like this?
timzank

Harry Flashman said:
Sweet smokin’ Moses where do they get the imbeciles, er, experts who make idiotic statements like this?

Where do they get them? American Universities of course.
TristramShandy

“The Commission offered another sad possibility, that New Year’s Eve fireworks could have went off near the birds and startled them so severely, that they died from stress.”

Berserk, I was going to say the same thing!! Matt Schneider must be some sort of unpaid intern trying to get through high school.
Rescuedog

SPLAT!!!
Rescuedog

berserk said:
“fireworks could have went off near the birds and startled them”

Mediaite, your writers need to pass some basic grammar test before they start blogging.

“Over 1,000 lifeless bird tragically fell from the sky in Beebe, Arkansas on New Year’s Eve.”

Bird —>singular
Birds —> plural
lazzzlo

Take a deep breath and look both ways…

The Commission offered another sad possibility, that New Year’s Eve fireworks could have went off near the birds and startled them so severely, that they died from stress.

It does happen.
lazzzlo

I live in Florida and we see yer birds.
milynily

Didn’t this happen in Austin a year or two ago? They never did figure it out, i believe.
lazzzlo

It is possible
lazzzlo

I am going to try to not argue as hard as i normally do.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Chuck-Fernandez/1584529576 Chuck Fernandez

Have them blamed Rick Sanchez yet?

http://friendsofricksanchez.com/
lazzzlo

It’s a tricky world but if you can’t link on to anything then you shouldn’t do it.
njoy-d-ride

IF those birds died from that kind of stress, That would have been ONE HELL OF A PARTY!!!
http://none pyrope

Could it have been some variation of H5N1?
Moderate

My guess is good as theirs, I say an updraft carried them so high they asphyxiated.
lazzzlo

Since most birds fly south; maybe the birds swooped in fast.

Early this week, it was very cold…now it isn’t.

They shake off their feathers and move on.
lazzzlo

Or, some dude in Arkansas set off a low level EMP that just got the birds; that actually wouldn’t surprise me.
Just_MC

If this isn’t the clearest sign of apocalyptic, suicidal-bird-cults, what is?
The Tea Weasel

That’s exactly what happens when birds run into UFO force fields. Either that or they flew thru one of Rush’s Oxycontin farts.
anthonylaw

Oh no!! I feel sad for the birds those lost their life due to one reason or the other. The truth behind this unfortunate incident must be find out.
Plaque Attack
Just_MC

Spare no expense in finding out the cause! If one bird is spared, it will be worth it!
Helix

lazzzlo said:
I live in Florida and we see yer birds.

Arkansas will cover yer birds, and will raise you 100,000 drum fish. Yer bet.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Helen-Nordo/100000884291530 Helen Nordo

Let’s see now..the fish are dying from the “oil spill?.(.tragedy)…the birds are falling out of the sky…dead..or dying…hmmm..and..we’re kinda stuck right in between, right..? wonder who’s next?..I’ll bet those “muslim terrorists” are trying out some new way of getting rid of us..try it first on the birds…if they don’t die, make it stronger next time..Hey Martians…looking for a dead planet?
suekay5

Just look up, you might just see JESUS any time
http://www.facebook.com/people/Sergey-Martyanov/100000789604932 Sergey Martyanov

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Josh Brisbane

Wow that’s awful, I wonder how this happened.

Plaque Attack

Plaque Attack
Frank

Wow, I can’t believe that happened. I’ve never seen that before.
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Anonymous

Just possible it might be target practice by juveniles working the HAARP. You know, like teenagers taking potshots at iphone apps … fish, birds, reindeer, dolphins, all of which have been found dead in large groups this last year. I just wish they’d stop killing the poor animals!!!
Anonymous

Just possible it might be target practice by juveniles working the iphone apps. You know, like teenagers taking potshots at Google Tech Talks… fish, birds, reindeer, dolphins, all of which have been found dead in large groups this last year. I just wish they’d stop killing the poor animals!!!