500 More Blackbirds Die, Deepening Mystery

An estimated 500 red-winged blackbirds and starlings were found dead in Louisiana, a local newspaper reported – just a few days and a short distance away from where thousands more plummeted to their death in Arkansas. The blackbirds in Louisiana littered a quarter-mile stretch of a state highway in Point Coupee Parish, near the city of Labarre, the Advocate reported Monday. Biologists are sending some of the birds found at Labarre to laboratories in Georgia and Wisconsin for testing. It was not immediately clear what caused their deaths. The mysterious mass bird deaths was just 360 miles to the south of Beebe, Ark., where up to 5,000 blackbirds fell from the sky over the holiday weekend. Investigators believe that celebratory fireworks caused the caused the birds to rain down onto homes and cars in Beebe before ultimately falling to their deaths...more