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Warren Watkins / The Daily Citizen / EPA
A dead blackbird on the ground in Beebe, Ark. Government officials estimate more than 4,000 blackbirds fell to the ground Jan. 1.
Birds are indeed in trouble. But this trouble has nothing to do with freakish events such as the thousands of blackbirds that fell from the sky in Arkansas on New Year's Eve. Rather, experts say birds are falling prey to a laundry list of long-term threats ranging from pollution and habitat loss to climate change.
The bird deaths in Arkansas, along with more deaths that have been reported in Louisiana, then Kentucky and Sweden, have been swept up into a phenomenon that's been dubbed the "aflockalypse" — but these events are actually relatively routine. They're not a sign that the end is near.
"I don't think there is a story here," Stuart Pimm, a conservation ecologist at Duke University, told me when I asked for his take on the buzz surrounding the birds. "It is probably just a bunch of independent events that have suddenly generated public notoriety and that's got everybody worried."
Birds in trouble
But that doesn't mean there's nothing to worry about. Pimm noted that one in six bird species is threatened with extinction.
"That is a story that is due to habitat loss and global climate disruption and a variety of global causes like that. That is something we were worried about last year, and we should be worried about now, and it is something that we should be worried about 10 years from now," he said. "But I don't think they have anything to do with the current events."
The current events are "the kind of thing we deal with everyday," said Krysten Schuler, a wildlife ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey who helps maintain a database on wildlife die-offs. Whether or not mass die-offs are on the uptick is uncertain – the biologists only know about those that are reported. They suspect that many, perhaps most, are never brought to their attention.
What's different over the past few days is more people are noticing the die-offs and, at least for the moment, reporting them. This may be the result of technology – cell phones, the Internet, and instant global communications, Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson told The Associated Press on Thursday.
The USGS' Schuler told me the flood of reports will likely die down in a few weeks once the current media buzz abates.
"The fact is, if they don't hear about dead birds, they might see some and not think about it or not think it is important to call somebody about it," she said. "Hopefully, by increasing public awareness, they'll be more likely to report other events in the future."
Keeping tabs on wildlife health
Learning more about mass die-offs will help scientists keep a closer eye on wildlife health, which is related to the health of humans and domestic animals, Schuler added. Many emerging infectious diseases, she noted, have their origins in wildlife populations.
"With the loss of habitat and places for the wildlife to be, you get more interaction between wildlife and humans, which crowds wildlife, and in crowded conditions you are more likely to have disease issues," she said.
While these are important issues, the experts say folks who are concerned about the current spate or bird deaths should focus instead on the bigger picture.
"I know many of your readers want Agents Scully and Mulder to go and investigate this," Pimm told me. "But no, the X-Files people have not been in touch with [me] and asked [me] to fly in a black helicopter to go and investigate them. I don' think there is anything untoward about this."
More about the real threats to birds:
- Experts say bird extinction rate is underestimated
- WWF: How climate change threatens bird species
- Oregonian: Habitat loss, invaders threaten birds
- ScienceDaily: Birds could signal mass extinction
- eHow: How pollution is affecting the birds
John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by hitting the "like" button on the Cosmic Log Facebook page or following msnbc.com's science editor, Alan Boyle, on Twitter (@b0yle).
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Keep feeding us the bs please, its so entertaining. Let me know when all the elephants die off then Ill know we're in trouble.
Mr. Pink, if all of the Earth's birds were to fall extinct, you would fall extinct rapidly. All of the Earth's biodiversity have jobs to perform and roles to play in insuring man's life giving systems or the Earth's ecosystems remain stable and life supporting.
Birds are in the eco-nomics of seed dispersal, pollination, pest control and the regulation and control of man's disease pathogens that cause global pandemics. Without seed dispersal, the Earth would be a plant-less, forest-less dead sphere. Our plants and trees are in the eco-nomics of oxygen releasing, the gaseous composition of the atmosphere, the sequesteration of C02 and the production of fresh water.
Without pollination, there would go man's food supply, including the plants that nourish cattle, hogs and chickens. Without pollination, there goes the Earth's plants and trees. And, birds are this planet's top agents of controlling pests that consume the Earth's ecosystems [forests, grasslands, hardwoods] and man's agriculture.
And birds, frogs and lizards are in the eco-nomics of protecting mankind from killer pathogens, like the plague, influenza and viruses.
Yup, you most assuredly would miss the Earth's birds. Man does not live in a glass bubble; his life is totally entertwined with all the life and all the living of our living Earth. Without the life that shares our Earth, there would be no life. Including yours.
I am sorry, I think there is more to this then they are letting on - I am not an alarmist at all, just saying that in order to be in tuned with life you best be in tuned with nature. Animals are the tell tale signs of things to come - they have instincts that man does not have or chooses to ignor - if a tsunmi is coming animals are the first to run to higher ground (back in 2004) - if the winter is going to be a harsh cold one Squirels will be thicker and fatter (Farmers Almanac) - these signs are all around us - we may not be in danger but something is changing.
It couldn't have anything to do with the 300 hundred plus years of additional pollutants entering the atmosphere, outside of natually occuring phenomenon, such as volcanic eruptions, and wildfires, could it? The article states that is it is not a sign of the end times, but they are saying that there are problems. And there are. The problem is, we have no historical basis to go off of, because there has not been an advanced society(relativly speaking) on this planet. We are treading new ground here, and we have no idea whats going to happen. We would have better luck navigating a cave with no light source right now.
I wonder how the media and government would react if suddenly 5000 people dropped dead in Arkansas and then a couple days later another 100,000 dropped dead a couple hundred miles away. And then more people in Sweden and several other places over the course of a couple weeks. Human die-offs are natural, we're all just animals, right? Something's wrong here.
yeah I agree
sick of the situation" wow nice analogy......I agree
This is all really something to think about and I think those who are just brushing it off are going to hve a big wake up coming
Hey guys, There's nothing to worry about...But that doesn't me we shouldn't be worried.
HA...ok...Animals are the first to go. we have abused the planet way to much..I think it is something to worry about for birds...and humans.
I hate to sound like a Conspiracy Theorist, but this sounds like typical media cooing. It's the, "Don't worry about it, nothing bad going on here, just go back to your poltical and entertainment concerns."
Meanwhile, I'm sure there are quite a few scientists around the world who would like to know what excatly happened in each of these dieing bird cases. What I find very interesting is that in each case, as far as I know, the bird deaths are unique to one species in one area. It's not like multiple species of birds are dieing all at once in an area. Nope, it's just Black Bird over here, Turtle Doves over there, and no rhyme or reason as to why a particular species is singled out. It just seems alltogether bizarre.
What's more, I haven't seen a single scientific explination as to why this has happened in any single case. We're given examples of what "may" have happened, but we are not being told what actually happened. I would like to see a news report with information from a credible scientist or research facility that shows evidences of exactly what happened to these bird. Until that is fully explained, it's no wonder that people are getting fidgety and anxious. We don't like having things happen that we can't explain.
I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels the peekaboo sightings we have heard of for years and years will soon end with a full appearance of the ones we call Aliens.. The birds are smacking into clocked Mother-ships. There could be ships under water also.. It could happen!!!
I meant cloaked.. you know , the one you can't see!!!!!
If there were an invisible cat in my chair, then my chair would look empty.
My chair does look empty.
Therefore, there is an invisible cat in my chair.
It could happen, right?
I don't know if Hal is throwing one at you but "bearlady" I THINK YOU HAVE AGREAT POINT and I am SHOCKED that I haven't read mre comments and blogs to that effect cause personally I thought this too. My husband I witnessed on Dec. 31st into Jan 1 an unidentified object in the sky over lake michigan here two blcoks from my home and since I have been looking up online others that happened then and SINCE consistantly. To me that makes the most sense.......you gotta open your minds people this is really happening and it just seems too "not normal" normal that i have ever know to be normal!
I don't know if anyone's heard, but over 2,000 turtle doves died in Italy. It's on Huffington Post.
Seriously, you all need to get off of the alien band wagon. It’s a crock of pitiful ignorance in which makes you all look stupid and pathetic. The thought of any type of aliens just makes me angry. There are much, much more serious things to worry about than these useless birds and fish. December 21, 2012 (my wife’s birthday) will be the beginning of the end people. You must prepare. The Zombie Apocalypse is upon us. Arm yourselves; those damn Zombies aren’t going to kill themselves. You have been warned.
ATC, I guess you are under the impression, you exist because of magic or voodoo. If all of the Earth's birds and fish were to fall extinct, so would you. You are only alive because of the Earth's ecosystems, and ecosystems are only life giving and supporting because of the richness of their biodiversity or the marine ecosystems' fish and terrestrial ecosystems' birds.
Biodiversity are the strands in the web of all life. Now, we are discussing the continuum of oxygen releasing, the very integrity of the atmosphere, the hydrological system, the nitrogen cycle, sequesteration of C02, the climate, the purification of the air and water, pollination, seed dispersal, decomposition 75% of all new medicines, mitigation of floods and soil erosion, the creation and renewal of a life giving soil, 99% of all pest control [those useless birds again] and the regulation and control of pathogens that cause deadly human pandemics, like influenza and emerging viruses.
You need to educate yourself on why you exist, and it has everything to do with the life that shares our Earth. Life -- get it? And, this nation's top scientists compare the extinctions of native species of plants and animals as a threat to mankind, right up there with thermonuclear war.
I do believe some of you were abducted, by your invisible aliens, who probed and scraped enough of your brains to make it seem as though your posts are grammatically correct.
They still don't know what caused the die off though.
Remember the movie "Mars Attacks"? The Martians said something like, "Do not be afraid. We will not hurt you." --- just before they shot people.
Don't worry? Okay. Then what happens?
Until we find out the real cause for this sudden die-off, we are supposed to believe that it is "normal" for thousands of birds to die in flight? And why only Balck Birds? I do believe the planet ecology is changing, and not for the better. Man is doing a pretty good job of destroying his own habitat. I am concerned about the younger generations. What kind of world will they live in? Will they ever know the Freedoms that we used to enjoy here in the U.S.? I think it is shameful that we are too busy fighting to worry about our future quality of life.
Richard, if there exists any credibility to the science of ecology, man is most assuredly destroying the Earth.
Something is seriously wrong here and has been for quite a while. We need to take our focus off of civil rights and the economy which has been all our recent generations have been concerned with and act on the environment and wildlife before it is too late.
For them to tell people that technology is the reason we are all so aware of these events is ludicrous! If these same events happened anywhere in the last ten years we would have known about them but apparently there were no six days of mass animal deaths. Nature is our first indicator of problems with the environment.. I think our gov't just doesn't give a damn or it's a cover-up.
SCREAMIN cover up if I do say so myself!!!! They have covered up so much I don't know how anyone can trust our government!!! They have MANY evil secrets
I Agree land monster & JBJ. We Just Don't Know.
maybe god is playing angry birds!!
What qualifies a person to be dubbed "an expert?" I think the American citizens ought to start demanding responsible reporting and Now. If pollution was a new concept, these so called "experts" might get away with using that as an excuse for why over 5,000 birds fell from the sky to their death.
But that will never fly today. Why don't the people start to gather their own information and come up with more realistic causes? Just like these so called experts can pick up a dead bird and after careful examination come up with some crap like... "Blunt organ Trama" ... I can do better and so could you.
Tell me this... if 5,000 human beings just dropped dead...what would these experts have to say about that?
Where can we go to get honest, responsible, News Reporting these days?
yeah but I cannot understand why us "know nothings" have questions....real questions...and those in the media are believing what they are reporting from those "experts" are they really???????????? :(
If 5,000 people died the experts would say it was a new strain of flu or all the cadmium in products purchased from Walmart.
Actually, groups of people do get sick and die--not all at once in the same place, but scattered, of the same causes. It's standard operating procedures in the mass media now to calm the masses by ascribing the phenomenon to "better reporting" and then suppresses further reporting on the topic.
If there's a massive fish kill in the summer it's because of algae blooms.
If they die in winter it's unusually cold water.
Either way, our earth is changing and I think paying attention to what happens to animals is a good way to tell where people are headed. I think it would be stupid to blow this off as a common occurrence. A common occurrence that happened back in 1970-something....That's a common occurrence?
birds craps bees ....what eles is there ...you report good news and get bad comments ...hopfully that with go next.
Thanks for their update and follow-up. Climate change yes. Global warming and ...
what about H.A.A.R.P. ?
Just heard that autopsies showed that all those blackbirds in Arkansas had mush for livers, and that they died before they hit the ground. Consider microwave weapons testing. This smoothing over by the press is the last thing we should look at.
Just heard that autopsies showed that all those blackbirds in Arkansas had mush for livers, and that they died before they hit the ground. Consider microwave weapons testing. This smoothing over by the press is the last thing we should look at.
Black birds! Now that's some real racism-by-natural-selection bs going down...no pun intended.
Come to think of it, they were talking about microwave weapons testing above. Wouldn't black absorb more radiation selectively? Of course, what applies to the visible spectrum might not extend to lower frequencies, but there is demonstrably different degrees of susceptibility to radiofrequncy radiation among different species. Still this is all speculation. We lack sufficient information on what happened to make a cogent argument about possible causes.
For example, were these "black birds" all of one species? The picture shows a red-winged blackbird. Were there also grackles?
This is death in pure forms. reasons may be this or that but combining with other events other than this
is getting more and more dangerous.look in the sky..... will know wats going around.....something big is going 2 happen...wait...watych...and rest will be history.
Watching The Happening. Mention it in my forthcoming book The Healing Powers of Honey (Kensington, Oct. 2011). Yes, I cover CCD (and interviewed researchers on both the West Coast and East Coast as well as bee keepers who have lost their colonies). I believe these events are not something to take lightly, at all. This topic will "die-off" but I do sense it's not over.
www.calorey.com
Yeah I heard about H.A.A.R.P. pretty complex stuff that I think we couldn't handle.
The only cover up here is accountability from humans, that everything they do, eat, drive contributes to pollution and now it is killing.
The birds are gay, and many species are gay from mercury poisoning and toxins but of course science doesn’t blame the record number of gay people on that either- no I’m not a homophobic so don’t go there.
If you all sat and watched the farmers in the Midwest dump by tractor and planes pesticides and toxins just for you to eat food daily, and how there is no top soil left and they’ve dug up every acre for bio fuels- you may all consider- we all are killing the birds and our children and ourselves from pollution the sad fact is most of the general populace takes every toxic piece of plastic they use for granted as to what that does cost the earth in pollution.
Thank you Alan sweetie for your articles (I appreciate them all and I am glad when you take them from out in- space onto earth)- but the sad fact is by the time you scientist figure it out conclusive it will be too late! From your dollmaker…www.adoll4ever.com
Please don't worry, everyone. Everything is just fine. GO to the malls and shop till you drop. Spend, spend spend. Be merry. Eat cake. Dance and drink and sing a happy little song. Go to work, get that check, and off to the malls again! Yayyy!!!! Things couldn't be more PERFECT. Go and CONSUME!!! Oh and as for those birds, who needs 'em? WHUT? You eat them? Are they at the MALLS? One bird, two birds, what's the diff? Sigh.
The sun keeps shining and technology keeps out running us. The sky is falling. It's the Rapture.
Come on people, get a grip. Lets do something about the things we can and quit loosing sleep over the things we can't. Make someone smile today. It doesn't take a PHDLMNOP
Are Stuart Pimm, Edward O Wilson, and the young wildlife biologist at USGS involved in a massive cover-up? I think not. If you have any questions about their level of expertise, why don't you try looking them up ...
Yes, die-offs are weird and disconcerting. And yes, if would be nice to know what caused these recent ones. All this article is saying is that the cluster of them is probably coincidental, that they probably happen more often than people previously realized, and that really, if you're going to worry about the birds (which you should!) there are much bigger concerns.
As far as the role of technology in all this, how many of you would have reported it if, while walking your dog, you ran across a dead bird? Two dead birds? Three? Maybe you would have been puzzled, a little concerned ... but most likely you would let it go, forgotten about it. Now if you got inside, went on facebook, saw some friend's post about the dead birds they saw, and then posted a response ... well now the two of you are going to be doubly concerned, and a lot more likely to ask other people whether they've seen dead birds ... and finally someone is bound to bring it to the attention of the media, or the scientific world, or the appropriate agency. So yes, I do think today's ease of communication plays a big role in this.
Hmmm hydraulic fracking is happening RIGHT NOW in the same regions the birds are dying in Arkansas...
Let's put 2+2 together folks!! Google the amount of earthquakes Arkansas has been experiencing lately in the region of the drilling. This shouldn't be a surprise to ANYONE, especially so-called scientists and experts. Natural gas companies are messing with the tectonic plates in that area, exposing magnetic fields... which birds rely on to migrate.
Take action AGAINST FRACKING at: www.gaslandthemovie.com