Arkansas bird carcasses being sent for testing

BEEBE, Ark. — Wildlife experts are trying to solve an apocalyptic-type mystery: Why did nearly 3,000 red-winged blackbirds tumble from the Arkansas sky on New Year's Eve?

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | Modified: January 3, 2011 at 8:41 am | Published: January 3, 2011 Comment on this article

Leave a comment

BEEBE, Ark. — Wildlife experts are trying to solve an apocalyptic-type mystery: Why did nearly 3,000 red-winged blackbirds tumble from the Arkansas sky on New Year's Eve?

photo - A worker with United States Environmental Services LLC collects dead birds from the back yard of a home in Beebe, Ark. Sunday, Jan. 2, 2011. Wildlife officials are trying to determine what caused more than 1,000 blackbirds to die and fall from the sky over the Arkansas town. (AP Photo/The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Stephen B. Thornton) ARKANSAS TIMES OUT; ARKANSAS BUSINESS OUT

A worker with United States Environmental Services LLC collects dead birds from the back yard of a home in Beebe, Ark. Sunday, Jan. 2, 2011. Wildlife officials are trying to determine what caused more than 1,000 blackbirds to die and fall from the sky over the Arkansas town. (AP Photo/The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Stephen B. Thornton) ARKANSAS TIMES OUT; ARKANSAS BUSINESS OUT

Multimedia

Photoview all photos

Article Gallery: Arkansas bird carcasses being sent for testing

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission says laboratories in Arkansas, Georgia and Wisconsin will examine some carcasses starting Monday. Results could be back in a week.

Commission spokesman Keith Stephens says the birds fell in an area about a mile long and a half-mile wide. Commission ornithologist Karen Rowe says the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail, or may have been startled by fireworks.

It's not the first time birds have dropped from the Arkansas sky. Lightning killed ducks at Hot Springs in 2001 and hail knocked birds from the sky at Stuttgart in 1973 on the day before hunting season.