Falling birds likely died from massive trauma
This is interesting — it turns out that the birds originally billed as “blackbirds” are actually Starlings[see update.] These are known to swarm and fly in dense packed swirling formations, which makes Fireworks as cause more plausible. [see Youtube vid from Otmoor below to view one of these amazing nightfall swarms.]
The thousands of birds that fell from the sky just before midnight New Year’s Eve in Arkansas likely died from massive trauma, according to a preliminary report released Monday.
The birds — most of which were dead when they were found — were red-winged blackbirds and starlings, and they were found within a one-mile area of Beebe, about 40 miles northeast of Little Rock, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said.
UPDATE: there are mixed reports of these being “Red Winged Blackbirds” and “Starlings, “still watching to see if they are mixed flocks overnighting in same fields or if one article or the other is just getting it wrong. From the picture at the link it’s Red Winged Blackbirds shown, and these use similar strategies to Starlings in massing the flock to fend off predators from their territory.