More than 1,000 birds found dead near southeast Missouri town

Credit: DaytonDailyNews

More than 1,000 dead birds were found Monday in a southeastern Missouri town, and officials are trying to figure out what happened.

Scott County conservation agent Andrew Mothershead said in a statement that carcasses of red-winged blackbirds, brown-headed cowbirds, grackles, and European starlings were found in the western park of Sikeston.

Several injured birds were found in vegetation near a highway, The Kansas City Star reported.

Mothershead said in his statement that he checked with weather officials in nearby Paducah, Kentucky, who confirmed that high winds were recorded in the Sikeston area Sunday, and that the birds may have been caught in the winds and lightning from a storm.

They also found several injured birds in vegetation near the roadway.

Video was taken at the scene, but it may be disturbing for some viewers. but may be disturbing to some viewers.

Meanwhile, area residents were perplexed by the dead birds.

"I haven't seen anything like this before," Gwineth Pearson, who came home to find her grandfather cleaning up the area, told KFVS. "My grandpa was like, 'Something happened.' I was like, 'What?' And then he said, 'Well, there is just a ton of dead birds everywhere.' And he picked up about 60. He had trash bags just full of dead birds."

Mothershead said that while it is rare for birds to become trapped in unstable weather conditions, it has happened, the Star reported.

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