Over 200 birds mysteriously fell from the sky onto a street in Utah, leaving residents scratching their heads over the cause.
The incident happened on a street in Draper on Monday, Jan. 29.
“It’s one of the rarest things I’ve ever heard of,” Sgt. Chad Carpenter from the Draper City Police Department told FOX13.
One Draper resident said she was driving down the street on 300 East when she witnessed the bizarre scene.
“As I was driving, these birds were just falling out of the sky,” Lacey Brown told FOX13. “They were all on the ground right around here and on the roadway. They were just falling out of the sky like leaves.”
Carpenter said the small birds are called starlings.
“You’ve seen that black cloud as it’s flying all over the place. Well, that’s a starling group and they call that flying tandem or murmuring,” he told the network.
According to experts, the falling is a technique used by the birds to stay warm during the winter and to ward off other birds of prey.
People on social media speculated over the cause, ranging from toxic air to poisoned birds.
Animal services were on the scene to clear the birds and to pick up any that were still alive.
“It was not a sight for the faint of heart,” Brown said.
Seventeen birds out of the hundreds seen were transported to a local rehabilitation center in the hopes they will recover and be released later.
Friends Read Free