Wildlife officials are trying to determine what caused more than 1 000 blackbirds to die and fall from the sky over an Arkansas town. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said that it began receiving reports about the dead birds about 11:30pm the previous night. The birds fell over a 2 kilometer area, and an aerial survey indicated that no other dead birds were found outside of that area. Commission ornithologist Karen Rowe said the he birds showed physical trauma, and she speculated that "the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail."
Robby King, a wildlife officer for the agency, collected about 65 dead birds, which will be sent for testing to the state Livestock and Poultry Commission lab and the National Wildlife Health Centre lab in Wisconsin.