Not necessarily, witness the failure of birds to "adjust" to brightly lit high-rise buildings & transmission towers which kill them in their millions every spring & fall.
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Blackbirds fall from Arkansas Sky (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Kits
- Start date
Not necessarily, witness the failure of birds to "adjust" to brightly lit high-rise buildings & transmission towers which kill them in their millions every spring & fall.
That's dealing with something they wouldn't encounter in nature--bright sustained lights on the ground at night. But they have evolved in conjunction with lightning storms--which are similar to fireworks in this respect.
Also, they aren't startled out of the air by brightly lit buildings, I presume they just misinterpret them as natural daylight, and head towards them. They adjust to them, but just in the wrong way.
Jim
But that’s just it, exactly how similar are fireworks to thunder-&-lightening storms which are typically preceded/accompanied by all kinds of other phenomena (cloudy skies, winds, humidity, pressure differentials)? Fireworks, on the other hand, typically come completely out-of-the blue with no warning from associated effects (at least no effects birds would have had time to evolve indifference to). And, of course, there is no question of birds being “startled out of the air” by the fireworks but of being startled into it from their night roosts & then crashing into something.
It will be interesting to see what the final verdict (if any) on the causation of this bizarre event turns out to be.
The plot thickens--
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/latest/112843019.html
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/latest/112843019.html
Chris D
Well-known member
The wife and I are safe in our bunker (ofcourse in our compound).......
I remember (when in college 30 years ago) reading about winter roosts of 10's of millions of starlings in similiar states. 3 + feet of feces underneath. Helicopters woulkd spray detergent on them on cold rainy nights. Kill zillions.
I remember (when in college 30 years ago) reading about winter roosts of 10's of millions of starlings in similiar states. 3 + feet of feces underneath. Helicopters woulkd spray detergent on them on cold rainy nights. Kill zillions.
Nobody did.
If IIRC It wasn’t just starlings which were slaughtered in this barbarous fashion, but the blackbirds, grackles & cowbirds mixed in with them at the same giant roosts.
Yes, and this one occurred on January 3--so presumably fireworks could not possibly be an explanation.
Some excerpts:
“Underlying disease, starvation and cold fronts where birds can’t get their body heat up” have caused similar occurrences “in various species over the years,” he said.
* * * *
* * * *
Slota also declined to speculate on a cause for the deaths, but he said a search of USGS records shows there have been 16 events in the past 30 years involving blackbirds where at least 1,000 of the birds have died seemingly all at once.
Kinda doubt fireworks could explain these 16 events. Surely they would've noticed if most occurred on new years eve or July 4!
Jim
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No, no, fireworks can’t be the cause of all such events, I never claimed otherwise. I was simply querying your assertion that fireworks can be ruled out in principle because birds are preadapted to cope with them. As I argued in a previous post, I don’t believe they are.
As for what actually--as opposed to could have--caused the Arkansas event, I have no definite opinion. Do you?
No, no, I never said fireworks can be ruled out "in principle" nor did I make the ridiculous suggestion that birds were preadapted to cope with fireworks. Instead I said it was unlikely that fireworks was the cause because similar natural occurrences which might startle birds (such as "lightening storms" to use your misspelling--sounds like an attack by adobe photoshop users), and which they have evolved to react to, don't cause them to go flying off into chimneys. Then you brought up the issue of them being attracted to lights at night, which really has nothing at all to do with this puzzle since those phenomena certainly don't have a startling effect on any creature.
In any event, it appears, after the evidence in the most recent article, that you now agree with my initial view that fireworks is unlikely to be the cause, so there should be no point in continuing this discussion. As usual, I grant you the last word in our debate.
Oh, here we go again. You certainly did say birds were preadapted to ignore fireworks Reread the first paragraph of your #22. How pathetic that you have to have the implications of your own arguments spelled out to you in this way.
And the elephantine humor about the “lightening” typo, how petty & how revealing of the weakness of your arguments.
Well, writing this has wasted 120 seconds I’ll never get back again, so farewell--until next time. .
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woodhornbirder
Well-known member
plenty on youtube about this....
I prefer the theory that somehow it's linked with Sarah Palin's tour of the south. Coincidence? I don't think so.
The latest link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12105157
Now it is 3,000 birds that have died!!!!!!
Regards
Kathy
x
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12105157
Now it is 3,000 birds that have died!!!!!!
Regards
Kathy
x
Hi KC
You are right, there are Starlings in the mix too. So that means different species rather than one species only.
Hope they get their sums right about the Blackbirds and the other species ie Starlings
Regards
Kathy
x
More of the same...elsewhere!
Hi everyone
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20110104/tod-new-mystery-as-more-birds-drop-dead-870a197.html
Now more 'dead' birds noted as Red Winged Blackbirds have been found in another area of the USA - Louisiana!
When is this going to stop as it is a tragedy now! :-C
Regards
Kathy
x
Hi everyone
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20110104/tod-new-mystery-as-more-birds-drop-dead-870a197.html
Now more 'dead' birds noted as Red Winged Blackbirds have been found in another area of the USA - Louisiana!
When is this going to stop as it is a tragedy now! :-C
Regards
Kathy
x
In addition to misidentifying some of the birds, these articles have some puzzling statements. Here's one that stuck out: "Blackbirds have poor eyesight, and they started colliding with things."
The eyesight of most birds is their most highly developed sense--as you might expect from an animal that flies. As the Sibley bird behavior guide notes "the acuity of avian eyesight is unparalleled among vertebrates: On average, birds can see two to three times more sharply than humans..."
I don't have any specific info on the eyesight of icterids, but would be surprised if they depart dramatically from that general rule. If anyone has reliable info, I'd be interested.
Best,
Jim
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