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Fallen Blackbird
Photograph by Stephen B. Thornton, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/AP
A dead bird lies on the ground in Beebe, Arkansas, on Sunday after being thrown off the roof of a home by a worker with United States Environmental Services LLC.
More than 3,000 red-winged blackbirds mysteriously tumbled dead from the Arkansas sky on New Year's Eve, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission told the Associated Press. (Visit National Geographic's backyard birding central.)
A preliminary report—released Monday by the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission—suggests the birds died of trauma of unknown cause.
"The birds obviously hit something very hard and had hemorrhages," game-and-fish commission bird expert Karen Rowe told CNN.
It's unknown whether the trauma occurred during contact with something in the sky—such as lightning or high-altitude hail—or when the birds hit the ground, Rowe said.
Commission scientists began to examine the carcasses today, and final results on the exact cause of the birds' death could be back within a week.
Published January 3, 2011
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Fish Kill
Photograph courtesy Arkansas Game and Fish Commission
Drum fish lie dead on the shores of the Arkansas River on New Year's Eve.
In addition to the dead birds, Arkansas officials are investigating what caused the deaths of between 80,000 and 100,000 fish, found Thursday by a tugboat operator near the city of Ozark, commission spokesperson Keith Stephens told msnbc.com. The cause of death will take a month to determine.
The giant fish kill occurred about 125 miles (201 kilometers) away from where the blackbirds fell from the Arkansas sky. For now officials say the two events are not connected.
(See "Massive Fish Kill in Gulf Caused by 'Dead Zone,' Oil.")
Published January 3, 2011
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Collecting Carcasses
Photograph by Stephen B. Thornton, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/AP
A worker with United States Environmental Services LLC tosses a dead blackbird off a home in Beebe, Arkansas, on January 2.
More than a thousand birds fell dead within an area about a mile (1.6 kilometers) long and 0.5 mile (0.8 kilometer) wide on New Year's Eve, commission spokesperson Keith Stephens told the Associated Press.
Such a giant bird kill has happened at least twice before in Arkansas, the AP reported: In 2001 lightning killed ducks in Hot Springs, and in 1973 hail knocked birds from the sky at Stuttgart.
(Also see video: "Gulf Spill Still Threatens Millions of Migrating Birds.")
Published January 3, 2011
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