Why did hundreds of birds fall from the sky in Mexico? Experts explain

The video left social media users horrified (Screengrab from video uploaded on Twitter by @DC).

Eerie footage has emerged on social media showing a huge flock of birds falling from the sky in Mexico, a scene straight out of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 horror classic The Birds. 

The video, shared widely on social media, showed hundreds of blackbirds descending on houses in Chihuahua in North Mexico. Most of the birds flew away, but later in the clip, the carcasses of some were seen strewn about a road.

Social media users were horrified and puzzled by the event and sought answers from experts.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Security footage shows a flock of yellow-headed blackbirds drop dead in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua pic.twitter.com/mR4Zhh979K

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— Reuters (@Reuters) February 14, 2022

A veterinarian called in to examine the birds said they could have died after inhaling toxic smoke or because of electric shock from power lines, reported Mexican newspaper El Heraldo de Chihuahua.

But what explains the flush of birds from above? Experts say a predator was behind the incident.

“This looks like a raptor like a peregrine or hawk has been chasing a flock, like they do with murmurating starlings, and they have crashed as the flock was forced low,” Dr Richard Broughton, an ecologist with the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, told The Guardian. “You can see that they act like a wave at the beginning, as if they are being flushed from above.”

Dr Alexander Lees, a conservation biology professor at the Manchester Metropolitan University, echoed Broughton’s view.

“For my part and from one video and no toxicology, I’d still say the most probable cause is the flock murmurating to avoid a predatory raptor and hitting the ground,” he told the newspaper. “There always seems to be a kneejerk response to blame environmental pollutants, but collisions with infrastructure are very common. In a tightly packed flock, the birds are following the movements of the bird in front rather than actually interpreting their wider surroundings, so it isn’t unexpected that such events happen occasionally.”