i have seen lots of different guesses on news programs and now they say 4000 to 5000. They would be roosting at night
so something had to frighten them. they say anything from fireworks for new years to thunder and lightning and possibly hail. I know it seems like a lot but one program said their numbers are many millions and most in southern states where they migrate to leave the cold.

i just got through looking at the department of agriculture web site report that stated red wing blackbirds migrate in and out of mexico and usa and canada
and their guess is a population of about 500 million in north america

4-5 thousand all in one area? And why is it just the RWBB that was spooked or hit by lightning or fireworks(they said there was no hail) but even so don't you think Starlings, Jays, HOSPs.....any other species in these areas would have met the same fate? I can't believe a disease could spread to so many birds and they all die within hours of each other. I have never seen a flock of 5000 anything flying together. This is so scary and as I said so sad. I love having them here in the spring.

i went to another web site tonight and the Agriculture department helped farmers in the Dakotas and surrounding states in the 1990's where there was an estimate of 77 million blackbirds destroying sunflower and field crops' they baited and trapped over 6 million in a 6 year period.

I read about this on USA Today, and there is a nice article and video there. The article said that they were speculating that the birds had been roosting and were spooked on New Year's Eve by some very loud booming sounds. Neighbors said the booms sounded like cannons firing or transformers blowing. They said that the preliminary necropsies showed traumatic injuries to all the birds. They said that the birds have very poor night vision and must have flown directly into houses and trees and such. They mentioned that the birds would not have flown upward if there were firworks in the sky. It sure seems very bizarre. I did hear or read that there were some other species of blackbirds invovled too, but it was mostly the Red winged Blackbirds that died. Apparantly this all happened within a rather small area as well. So odd and sad too. I actually like this species of Blackbird.

Here is a link that might be useful: Red winged Blackbird Deaths

That's too bad, I kind of can agree what they're saying, black birds fly
in very large groups and happen to be at the wrong place at the time
of fire works.

Given the facts (local event, fireworks in the area, flying in large group, unusual statisticly..) there is a good chance that they just happened to be within or very close to the airspace where fireworks were launched and exploded. I'm thinking of the percussive kind.

Does any one know if birds have a balance organ like humans have in the inner ear? If this organ were damaged or stressed by a nearby percussion, might the birds loose their balance (sense of up/down) become disoriented, and lose the ability to fly correctly? Such damage might be masked by trauma due to hitting the ground or other obstacles, the latter being mentioned in the necropsy reports.

A coworker just mentioned today that somewhere a larger number of
fish died too.

Here is a video...looks like this is happening globally

Here is a link that might be useful: Bird & Fish death

Where I am located we have been engaged in a battle with those who want to hydrofrack the shale to extract the natural gas for the money. We believe it can result in an ecological mess.
I listened to two of the residents from Arkansas describe what they heard (phoomph- whoosh) before the birds died and I thought that sounds like it might be a gas problem. I wondered if they were drilling in the area. Well turns out they have been doing a lot of drilling in that area resulting in numerous fracking earthquakes.
My guess is that the birds may have died from escaping gases, perhaps even ingnited by the fireworks.

Here is a link that might be useful: arkansas and gas drilling

James Clark's question is interesting and in looking it up I found an answer on earthlink.net - that birds do have a sensitive inner-ear mechanism much like mammals(and esp. humans)do, and as with humans, the inner ear serves to help with balance. (Pretty crucial if you're flying!)

Also, that hearing for some birds is incredibly sensitive -so fireworks would be a shock for them.

I don't know whether this information is helpful in understanding the blackbird event, but I thought it was helpful in understanding birds in general.

and now the fish last night on the news millions of them What is going on ? they say the cold water hmm I wonder

This is beginning to really scare me. Am I the only one that never heard of "chem-trailing" and all of that other stuff they talk about from Konrads link. Think about it...area and species spesific and on new years eve. As many pointed out I have not heard of great numbers of birds being killed off from 4th of july fireworks and nearly every city in the US has them, I don't buy that theroy at all. It's time for REAL answers.

It could be that this time of the year we have very large flocks of birds
staying together until breeding time. At 4th. of July birds a scattered around ...some my still die but we will only see one here and there and
will not hit the news.

Is this a legitimate story - now doves with a blue stain on their beaks??
http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/07/now-its-dead-doves-falling-from-sky-in-italy/

and what about this - dead snapper in New Zealand
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10698062
AND
dead fish in Chesapeake Bay
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0613722420110106
AND dead crabs in the UK
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/06/dead-crabs-wash-ashore-by_n_805211.html

What the heck - starving cold fish and crabs dying en mass???? Birds falling from the sky because they crashed into buildings.. HUH???? Really??

Scary stuff, Konrad. All the articles are troubling

It IS scary Rachel. I am sure that was not the only southern town that has large flocks of overwintering birds to have fireworks that night. If the stories Lucypwd posted are all true there is something huge going on. Even if they are not, the confirmed 2 flocks of birds and the fish all in the same week are reason enough for us to demand answers. I don't know about everybody else but I am glad I am right with God.

There were over 100 dead birds that dropped over in Geyserville, CA off the 1010 Freeway this past Saturday. There were also a rather large number of Rooks and Choughs over in Sweden that died.....not to mention the birds in Arkansas, Kentucky, Italy and the fish, crabs, etc. in various places around the world. All in clusters, all falling on or near or within two weeks of, the New Year. Scientists are saying that mass die-offs are very common in birds, especially in winter....as for the fish and sea-creatures, they're saying red tides are on the increase in those areas. So this is hard to pin point....and don't get me started on the conspiracy theorists....egads. Thank GOD He is Sovereign over *all* of it. (Colossians 1: 19-20)

Just came across this article this morning and it outlines all of the dead bird/dead fish occurances since December 30,2010. I just do not recall having heard of this sort of thing ever in my lifetime. It's really scary stuff.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dead Bird/Dead Fish List

Wether it be global conditions, biblical, manmade, who knows. I do know that people should take note, this can not be a "fluke" or "coincidence". It's time we pull our heads outta the sand. So often we just shake our heads and wonder "how did this happen" then dismiss it and go on as nothing ever happened. I for one will continue to inquire and push for sound answers. Whatever the source we are clearly being warned that not all is well with our planet

Today on TV in my City
But this is nothing new or mysterious, a flock was eating berries... got
a bit tipsy and flew into a large truck, it got to the news because of the
large death in the US.

Konrad

Here is a link that might be useful: Bohemian Waxwing death

Oh gosh Konrad, that is extra tragic. Really hate to see the Waxwings be killed. Poor drunk things. That is sad.

OH that is sad, I know they are one of you favorites to photograph. And see there is a good sound explaination for this (much like Deer getting drunk on Apples) so though it is sad it is not a worry. At least they were happy when they died, prolly never felt a thing.

Redwing black birds died from eating wild grapes.
The wood in the seed turns to methanol alcohol
when it fruments

Martin, I have heard that theroy too, however it does not explain so many deaths all at the same time and at night. Or why this dosent happen all the time because there are wild grapes all over every winter that flocks of birds eat. I can't be comforatable with this explaination.

Here is a update..

Here is a link that might be useful: Update